Adding Watercolour Backgrounds

If you’re urban sketching standalone figures, the sketch can look quite flat or boring if you don’t add some background details. But when I’m in people-sketching mode and don’t want to sketch the actual objects in the background of the scene, I’ll often add a watercolour wash to inject some interest.

Here’s some people sketches I’ve done recently. There’s a couple of different approaches for adding simple but effective backgrounds that supplement the story or feeling you’re trying to convey in your sketch.

Adding a Flat Wash to the Background

Even a flat or variated wash can add a dash or vibrancy and life to an otherwise unexciting sketch. Adding a yellow wash to this sketch really makes the figure pop, and the red and yellow work well together. But I could have taken this in a different direction.

Instead of painting his tee-shirt the true colour, I could have painted it blue – that way we have had each one of the primary colours in the sketch.

Or I could have painted it green, and this would have made an optical connection between the very stationary man and the movement of a set of traffic lights. That combination of red, amber, green is universal.

This couple were sitting on a boat in Turkey on a windy day. The foreground was really complex and distracting, so I painted an interesting single-colour wash to depict the sky instead.

You can tell this couple is sitting, as the man has his arm resting on the back of the women’s chair. But this could be anywhere, not necessarily a boat. With the addition of the sky, you still get the sense that this couple is outside and looking outwards at something.

Adding a Variegated Wash to the Background

I sketched this lady in a local cafe who had a really distinctive face, and I wanted to complement the portrait with an equally distinctive background.

I mixed orange and opera rose together on the page, and this combination complements the blue shirt she was wearing.

Adding a Gestural Wash to the Background

This last sketch was done from a Draw Tip Tuesday video hosted by Koosje Koene. She was sitting in front of a building but I didn’t want to sketch any of the background besides the wrought iron fence.

In the video, Koosje was just taking a quick break to sketch, and then moving onto another location, so I wanted the right side of the background wash to indicate movement and direction. Also, because she’s an artist, I wanted a creative background.

I gave Koosje a yellow (new gamboge) tee-shirt (I think it may have actually been red), and used the complimentary colour purple to create a gestural background. I like how the opera rose and phthalo blue (green shade) separated and also the blooms that were created by painting a new layer before the layer underneath was dry.

All of these backgrounds have been used as an unobtrusive backdrop to a scene where the people are the focal point. Whenever I add a watercolour wash, I try to make sure it’s a cohesive colour which won’t distract my attention away from the figure. It’s a mindful addition, although it may seem like a casual decision.