On the Spot People

Click image to enlarge

 It's always wonderful when you begin to tackle something that you thought you couldn't do.  Like sketching moving people. I really did not think I could do this, yet after some great instruction through Sketchbook Skool, a couple of deep breaths, and a hefty dose of beginner's mind, I got started.

Now this is one of my favorite things to do. It still takes a dash of courage to begin but once I get going the fun just never stops.

For the people watching sketches above I was sitting in a Panera, at a window seat and plenty of people were walking by on a cold but sunny winter day in the cultural and shopping district. Literally walking by, which meant I had to take a good look, fix them in my mind's eye, and pick out the one thing that was most memorable about them. In the twenty or so seconds that they were in my view I could often get that one feature down on paper and the rest was from memory.

I think it's that challenge, that mental game, I have to play that I enjoy so much. These are simply gesture sketches that aim to capture one memorable element of a person. It could be their hair style, their clothing, their posture, or height.

Sketches like these help develop visual memory and they also help develop mark making and expressive,but controlled line work, both so essential to sketching.

Click image to enlarge

Another people sketching opportunity at the salon,  where my subject was moving but was also engage in repetitive movements which gave me a different kind of opportunity, one that allowed for a little more development.  This is the kind of thing that happens when people are engaged in an activity, they often come back to the same pose or position. So sometimes you are required to move to another part of the sketch as you wait for their hand or arm to return to a previous position.

I've always been so afraid to sketch people but now I feel empowered, and really it just took about half a dozen times out doing it to get me over the hump and into the fun zone.

Nice to know that I'm still growing, learning and stretching by working in my sketchbook.

Starbucks People

Click image to enlarge

Sketching people is a new challenge for me.  Or rather, a fear overcome (it's still a challenge though).

Since taking the plunge and making a concerted effort to sketch people, which necessitates sketching them in public, I've actually become a little addicted to the challenge.  After just a few goes I found myself much more comfortable and liking the "riskiness" of it. People move, they leave, they might come over to see what your doing and see that you tried to draw them and not like what they see.  That has actually never happened to me (yet). I think I am developing some unconscious body language that let's people know that I'm busy and they shouldn't bother me.  It's not rude body language, I think it's just sort of an authoritative posture of some kind that projects an air of I'm a professional doing work, rather than I'm totally enjoying myself and would love to share this with you so come on over.  I don't do it purposely or even consciously I just have noticed that when I'm sketching things I'm very comfortable with, like the landscape, people seem to come over all the time, but not when I'm sketching people. This is all conjecture of course.  Meanwhile I'll keep sketching people, my one "risky" behavior addiction!

Your Sketchbook as a Mobile Art Lab

It's good to experiment! One of the functions of a sketchbook is to function as a mobile laboratory, for experiments, and to record trials and errors, and to record results.

This particular day one thing  I was experimenting with architecture, a subject I find challenging. I've been experimenting with using a pencil grid as a guideline to help me plot out the basic architectural structure of a building before getting caught up in all the cool little details.

That's a change from the way I usually work. I most often just pick a spot and begin to draw working out from that place. The problem with architecture is that I often can't fit the whole thing on the page, or because I'm focusing on the detail I actually miss whole important parts of the building like leaving out a window or an entire floor!!!

My second experiment was with the writing style. Normally, I write in all caps and create neat blocks of text which play an important role in the overall lay out of the page. On this day I wrote in funky colors, with a Faber-Castell Brush Tip Pen in cursive.  I've been trying out several looser more expressive writing styles to see if any of them fit me. So far I haven't hit on one that would be my default font, so I'm pretty much back to block lettering. but that doesn't mean I'm not going to keep experimenting with writing styles.  Because the neat part is that I now have a couple of new ones I can use now and again when appropriate to the page and I have a few new ones that look good as headlines.

Third experiment for the day was sketching people a little more slowly.  This is another area I find challenging. It's more of a fear thing than a skill thing, though my people drawing skills will always need improving. I actually get pretty nervous sketching people in public, so I rush my sketches which really doesn't help me improve my skills. For the experiment I picked people in the lunch shop that were far enough away from me that I felt pretty OK that They wouldn't notice that I was drawing them and that helped me slow down a bit. The woman in the beret was the most successful because she was engrossed reading the newspaper and I felt the safest taking the time to really look at her as I was drawing.