Urban Sketching at the Food Hall

Day Twenty-Eight of Sketching People

Continuing with day Twenty-Eight of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour.

Urban Sketching People

I usually go to the coffee shop in the Tavira Plaza Mall, but since they renovated the cafe it’s not such a great place to sketch because of the limited visibility to the whole place.

So I had a brainwave today to go up to the next floor and sit in the food hall to sketch. What a great idea. The place was packed, and plenty of people standing and sitting around. Perfect for Urban Sketching People.

I found a great spot at some elevated counters with tall bar stools. So it was easy to look down on diners, and they couldn’t really tell that I was sketching and painting them. I don’t always take my paints out with me, and usually opt to paint my sketches back at home. But today I took my studio palette out with me, and I’m glad I did.

Diners at the Table

There doesn’t seem to be much of a rush to leave once people have plotted up to eat lunch, which is good for sketching. Whether they’re eating, or playing on their phone, there’s not a lot of movement going on.

I sketched in the background with pencil in this sketch above, and was going to add the ink lines. But I like the faded look of this pencil, as it helps to make the busy background details recede into the background, and not detract from the people, which is the focal point. The pencil details were just to add a sense of place, but I didn’t want them to dominate the scene.

I messed up this guys pink baseball cap. It was the first thing I drew on this page, so just went with it. But I was really happy with how I sketched the hand holding his phone.

Liked how the lady in the green coat had her legs positioned. And how oversized she looks on that little seat.

Customer Waiting for Food, and Ordering Food

The guy waiting for his food was the first guy I sketched. I just loved his stance. He didn’t move for ages, so it was easy to get the outline of this sketch down quickly. I really like how the paint layering technique for his blue shirt. 1st layer of a watery wash of turquoise, and when it was almost dry, a 2nd layer of French Ultramarine. What works really well is the large areas of white I left on his blue shirt. I should have left a similar amount of white on the other people’s clothing.

Note to Self: Leaving plenty of white in the watercolour areas really add a sense of life to a sketch. Leave More White.

Customer at the Counter Next to me

When I first sat down, this lady was slurping the dregs of her soup directly from her bowl, but she finished quickly and I didn’t have time to sketch it. But she sat there for a while playing on her phone, so I was able to sketch her profile view. Just wish I’d captured that slurping!

We were sitting near the Love Pizza wall graffiti, so I added this into the background of this sketch. Rather than leaving the white wall, I made the background turquoise to complement the red lettering and the lady’s yellow jacket.

I didn’t used to worry about adding any backgrounds to my people sketches, but more recently, I’ve really wanted to give a sense of place and setting to my people sketches.

My Urban Sketching Kit

Of course, I ended up taking more than I used! I took my A6 and A5 Hahnemühle sketchbooks, but only used my A6 one. This month I’ve been filling this book up with people sketches, and I’m eager to fill it up in the next couple of days.

Here’s the art materials I used:

• Staedtler pigment liner 0.05
• Pencil
• Rosemary & Co Sable Blend Designer Pointed travel paintbrush and Da Vinci Pure Kolinsky #4 travel paintbrush
• Watercolour Palette and small water container (a small measuring cup from a cough medicine bottle!)

I was a bit worried that the Rosemary & Co watercolour brush was a little too big for these small sketches (I think it’s about a size 8). But it actually works really well, to help you avoid getting too fussy with the paint layers.

Here’s the art materials I didn’t use:

• Light, Medium, and Dark Grey Tombow Dual Tip brushes pens
• Uni-ball Eye Micro black pen