Ink Lines with Tonal Shading

Day Twenty-Five of Sketching People

Continuing with day Twenty-Five of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. The cold weather has been limiting my desire to venture out and do some urban sketching. So I’ve been experimenting with shape and tone from photos and videos.

Sketching Shapes First

I found some photo references of groups of people online, and used a neutral watercolour mix to paint shapes of people to try and capture their pose and stance with just shape.

Then (because I couldn’t resist) I added ink lines for a bit of detail and definition.

I think this technique of shape first would be ideal for rendering people in the distance that you don’t need much detail for. Then they’d be no need to add ink lines.

I did these examples too big (in an A6 sketchbook), because there’s no way I’d sketch people like this if I was urban sketching. But it was a good exercise to think in shape rather than line.

One aspect I do like about this approach was that I didn’t follow the shape exactly when I was adding the lines over the top of the shapes. This has created a loose and energetic feel to these sketches which I really like.

Sketching Lines First

I found some videos of people walking down the street on YouTube, and slowed the video down to the minimum speed before sketching the people with ink lines.

Then after the ink lines were done, I filled the body and clothes in with a couple of layers of tonal value.

I love ink lines, and when I always start with ink lines when I urban sketch. I’m a fan of colour, and love adding watercolour to my sketches, but I really like the look of these tonal sketches. Especially when you can see how loosely the tone has been added.

Each figure has a fair about of white areas left on them, and I like that the grey tonal areas are adding quite roughly.

Initially I just added a pale grey wash, but then when it was dry, I added a second and darker layer of tone to each figure. I really like the look of these sketches with black lines, white areas, and two shades of grey. This approach would be good for sketching big crowds of people in a scene, when I didn’t want the people to be a mass of colour that detracted from the rest of the scene.

There’s a Winter Sun event in Tavira in a couple of weeks time, and I think they’ll be a crowd of people at the event, so that’d be a good opportunity to experiment with a crowd of tonal people amid a colourful backdrop.

Experimenting with your People Sketching Approach

I tend to always sketch people with the same technique, but I think it’s good to experiment with different approaches to keep your hand eye coordination in a constant flux of learning.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of only ever thinking in line, but shapes are just as important. When you think in shapes it really helps to simplify what you’re trying to draw.