Blind Contour Speed Sketching

Day Forty-Three of Sketching People

Continuing on with day 43 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. Today I attended the Monday night session of Drawing is Free speed sketching on Zoom.

Drawing is Free Speed Sketching

Drawing is Free live sketching event is a one-hour speed sketching session, with each pose the length of a different music track, so each pose ends up being between 2 1/2 to 5 minutes. The soundtrack never disappoints, and it’s just as well that I’m on mute, because it’s difficult not to sing along to the classics!

Watercolour Paper for my Portraits

Last time I did a speed sketching event I felt like the small pieces of paper I was using impeded my creativity. So over the weekend I prepared a batch of different sized oblongs and squares using the Claire Fontaine AquaPad 300gsm fine grain watercolour papers. During the sketching session I selected the size based on the length of the music track.

I still ran into the issue of starting the portrait too large, and I ran out of space to fit all of the elements in. So I think next time I’ll draw a light pencil border within these mini canvases, in the hopes that it’ll encourage me to sketch smaller.

Line and Colour

I sketched using my Staedtler pigment liner 0.05 and added some tonal shading with my Tombow N95. Some of the sketches were partial blind contours, and I also used a bit of continuous line.

It took me a couple of sketches to get into the groove during this session. But there’s a few portraits I sketched that I was really happy with – especially some of the noses. I’d like to release my reliance on my fine-liner, but it’s easy to use, and I really like the ultra fine lines it creates, especially for portraits.

After the sketching session I added some spot colour to the eyes (an opera pink and cobalt turquoise light mix), the lips (an opera pink and quin rose mix), and to the glasses in various shades.

I like the look of tonal sketches, and wish I could leave my portraits as ink only sketches, but I can’t resist adding a bit of colour. Last time I attended this speed sketching event, I ended up adding orange and turquoise backgrounds. But this week I managed to dial back my influx of colour. I think tonal sketches with spot colour is a good look for these speed sketching portraits.

Ways of Adding Tonal Shading

In my deep dive into Per Ragnar Mokleby‘s reportage and sketching style, I liked how he uses diluted primary colour and grey ink in his water brushes to paint with a limited palette. I have grey ink, but I’d have to use diluted watercolour in a water brush for the primary colours. The trouble with using the Tombow pens is that it leaves a really hard edge, and for these speed sketching portraits adding the tonal shading is a two step process.

• Step One: Add grey tonal shading with my Tombow
• Step Two: Use a paintbrush with water to soften the edges

My goal for each of the portraits is to sketch the ink lines and add shading within the time limit. I don’t want to have to create the shadows and tonal shading from memory or imagination.

I’d like to really look at the true shadows, and capture them on my page. But the two step process is a bit labor intensive. I think diluted ink or watercolour in a water brush would be quicker and less fiddly to use.

I’ve created a roundup post of online live portrait sketching events online. Click here to see your options.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I attended this speed sketching event. Last week I was waiting for the Zoom to start, and I realised that I’d missed it by an hour. So now my roundup of online live portrait events has my timezone listed, so I get it right from now on! If your timezone isn’t listed, you can check your local time on this Time Zone Converter.