I’m a little behind posting this week… so it’s time to catch up before I start Day 4.
Yesterday I got back to my local cafe and did a few sketches with watercolour – combining ink and wash in various ways. A Chinese man got very interested in my work and took numerous photos (including a selfie with me) and a little video – sigh! The hazards of urban sketching! Actually this week has been very social. Every time I have sketches in public, someone has spotted me and looked over my shoulder. It’s been good to have this positive interaction while I am sketching.
On Day 2 evening, I also did this page sketching from Mark Simon’s Book: Facial Expressions. I have sketched the people in this book so many times, and know that I could use Sktchy instead, but for some reason I am a little attached to these people.
These sketches were completed very quickly and reinforced a few things I’ve been thinking about:
- My natural pace is fast and this is certainly the case with my people sketches. As a result I know that I will get a lot of out of whack sketches.
- I am getting more comfortable with distorted faces! It’s ok, that is going to be my style and I can live with it.
- I’m really interested in the best order to sketch facial features. I am finding that starting with the ears and then doing eyebrows and/or jawline and/or hair shape is working well for me as I get a better feel for the whole volume of the head.
- I need to find time for some more research so that my shorthand for various features becomes more accurate.
- I need to draw more full figures!
Two other ideas floating around in my head this week:
- It’s hard to sketch people with watercolour unless I am stationed in the one spot for a little while
- I’m finding my 1.2 inch dagger brush a little big so am going to try a smaller brush – the pocket dagger?
- I really want to try to put my people sketches into a scene so that I am telling a story. I am getting a little tired of the creating ‘multiple floating head pages’ in my sketchbook.
How are you going with the challenge? Are you see improvement?
7 Comments
Maybe not so much improvement, but definitely speed. I’m following Marc’s approach of a single black brush pen to make small (2″) figures . . . so much fun! My goal is to see how few marks I can make and still evoke a unique individual (through posture or gesture) and not just a generic symbol. I seem to be working best by capturing people queued up for coffee or walking past me at the mall. I have a few seconds or only a minute at most, so I’m getting a lot done!
Well, I started a day late, so it’s been catchup mode since. If I compare my shopping centre (mall) sketches to those I did last year, I’m definitely seeing an improvement. But it was from a low base!! I struggle with getting a likeness, but when people are moving so quickly, maybe I should follow Tina’s idea, to “evoke a unique individual”, rather than try to catch every feature! Currently, most of my sketches are floating on a page with lots of other faces and figures, and I would definitely like to incorporate them in the landscape too. One thing at a time, though! It’s great fun and great practise!
Great figures on the page with the cup!!! I stopped worrying about getting a real likeness in the faces and it seems like I do better when I don’t concentrate on that and just enjoy the process. I’ve been sketching the faces directly in in, and many of them I will add a wash of watercolor. I did finish my 100 today. Yay!
I agree with your comment that the (beautiful) Rosemary and Co 1/2″ dagger is too large for small sketchbooks. As I can’t afford to order the travel brush, I discovered the 1/4″ dagger by Royal and Langnickel, readily available here in Canada, and promoted more to the crafter. It is synthetic and much stiffer than the Rosemary sable blend. It cost less than #10. I find I am reaching for it constantly.
THanks for sharing Tony!
Hi Liz thanks for the challenge. I learnt a lot and wrote about it as a blog post. Thought I would let you know remove this if you don’t want people doing this – absolutely no offence taken. I just wanted to wave and say I did it!
http://inaminuteago.com/response-oneweek100people2018-challenge/
of course it’s ok!! thanks so much for sharing Sharon
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