Here’s my current urban sketching set up when drawing and painting on location. It includes a DIY sketchbook board I made out of recycled watercolour pads. It works really well for A4, A5, and A6 size sketchbooks. Find out how to make it, and what else I attach to my board when I’m urban sketching.

Urban Sketching day out in Tavira sketching Tavira Public Gardens. Take a deep dive into how I planned the composition using the L-shaped layout, and how to create dynamic skies. I also sketched one of the town’s many churches and tested how to use water-soluble ink to create shadow area.

Day 87 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. A quick loose sketch of one of the local boules players, and then a loose application of watercolours.

Day 86 of sketching people. The calm of sketching people at the cafe when you know they’re not going to move much vs. the urgency of sketching people on a bench when you fear they may get up to walk at any minute means you create different line styles. Tight vs. loose.

Urban Sketch of a local washing line I walked back from Conceição to Cabanas on my way back from an…

Day 85 of sketching people. I did a couple of different versions of a sketch based on a photo of a women I took in London. The first version was uninspiring and not the least bit memorable, but my second version used a loose line and dynamic painting style inspired by Australian artist Toni Burt.

Day 82, 83, and 84 of sketching people at the cafe, garage, and on the boardwalk. Not a huge output, but took the opportunity of sketching in the cracks of life. Making the most of time I spent waiting around. Better than doom-scrolling.

As part of the Liz Steel watercolour course I created a colour preference mood board to make sure the colours I was attracted to, were in my palette, or could be mixed from the colours in my palette.

In this article I look at a collection of people sketches by Tiago Crus and analyse how he uses a hierarchy of line, colour, and contrast. How he establishes a focal point, and how he creates a strong visual pathway to lead the viewer’s eye.

Using a sketchbook page full of overlapping people from a cafe during a recent urban sketching outing, I’ve analysed the different ways to improve the composition and layout of the sketch using thumbnail sketches. Experimenting with different layouts by adjusting focal point, increasing negative space, and creating a dynamic shape on the page, and making sure to leave space for a title.

Day 81 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. A detailed sketch of my MIL relaxing on the couch.

I delve into Andrew Tan’s (dreamscape) concepts and approaches for his comic strip style page layouts. He’s an urban sketcher and comic book artist based in Singapore. I also summarise his Skillshare class which covers how to sketch quicker and more simply using contour lines.

Day 79 and 80 of sketching people. Urban Sketching people during my train journeys around the UK. I sketched at Kings Cross, Doncaster, and Hull, on the train, and at the cafe. Experimented with some limited palette compositions.

Santi Sallés’ YouTube channel has examples of him sketching using a comic strip style layout, and a more organic page layout. But use the inclusion of small vignettes to capture his urban sketched scenes.

I did Koosje Koene’s “How to Draw Distorted Perspectives” Tutorial, and here’s the exercises we did using two different approach. Firstly contour ink lines, and then another sketch using watercolour shapes, and adding minimal ink lines afterward.

Day 76, 77, and 78 of sketching people. Urban Sketching people and statues I encountered in London, and sketching the audience at the Royal Albert Hall during a concert. Merging colour and monochromatic sketches to increase the focal point, add depth, and simplify the composition.

Experimenting with a comic strip style page composition to document an urban sketching day out. I evaluated the story thread, the subject matter diversity, the strength of the focal point, and my use of colour and text.

We take a look at the different way Don Low sketches people on a double page spread using negative space, tonal shading, and high contrast in his comic book spreads. He creates impactful scenes with no use of colour. I evaluate how he uses these elements to lead the eye through the panels, and how he varies his panel layouts across both pages.

Day 75 of sketching people. Urban Sketching people in the departures long of Faro Airport, and on the plane from the front row – so lots of toilet queue sketches. Experimenting with different compositions using an outlined oblong shape in the background to tie people and objects together on an A6 page layout.

Day 74 of sketching people and also the first day of One Week 100 People. Got more continuous line practice in by sketching a crowd scene at a cash point machine from a photo. And a page of random portraits for skin tone practice.

Day 73 of sketching people. Got some continuous line practice in by sketching a crowd scene at an airport, from a photo. And a couple of urban sketches at the local cafe.

Day 72 of sketching people. Urban Sketching people at the cafe at the end of the street. Playing around with compositions to leave enough negative space so my sketches can breathe. Also added text, social commentary, and overheard conversations to turn these urban sketches into reportage.

I use the definition of a vignette from well-known urban sketchers to figure out how to improve my building sketches. I evaluate a recent vignette urban sketch of a church that wasn’t successful, and a couple of other urban sketches that were.

Day 71 of sketching people. A morning urban sketching people at cafes and a mobile screening unit in Tavira. Experimenting with different backgrounds and page layout compositions.