Place du Capitole Toulouse
Day Forty-Eight of Sketching People
Continuing with day 48 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. After yesterday’s warm day, we’ve been plunged back into darkness with moody grey clouds, so the only sketching I’ve done is sketching from the TV, and being inspired by today’s Urban Sketcher’s prompt – Pink.
Sketching from Photo and Imagination
These sketches were inspired by the February prompts published by the Urban Sketchers Organisation. Each month they publish a new list to encourage urban sketchers to sketch their cities and share their sketches. This month the Urban Sketchers group in Toulouse are posting sketches and related information about Toulouse in anticipation of the symposium they’re hosting in July.
The February 1st USk prompt is PINK
So I found a bunch of different photos from Toulouse, and cobbled together a scene from my imagination to show the pink city and its people.
This was a good exercise to practice sketching people with minimal details. To begin with I added in too much information (people on the left), so simplified the carrot people figures (people on the right) with legs in motion. When you see these two sets of figures side by side, the ones on the right definitely look like they fit the scene better. The focal point of this scene was the tall lamp post, so sampled figures are the best option.
Overwhelmed by the Place du Capitole
The inspiration for this scene was based on multiple inputs from the Place du Capitole in Toulouse, a neoclassical architectural masterpiece. As an urban sketcher who prefers sketching people rather instead of sketching buildings, it’s incredibly overwhelming to think that one of the sketch crawls at the symposium might take place in this square.
So I took a closer look at the building to see if there was specific elements I could zoom in on, and I really loved the reliefs and the statues clinging onto the building. Suddenly my anxiety waned, and I remember a valuable lesson about urban sketching…. it’s up to you to include or leave out whatever you want in your sketch. So if one of the sketch crawls is going to be in this square … I’m going to zero in on the details, and forget the big huge shape of the massive buildings. Problem solved.
I sketched these statues and reliefs mainly with continuous lines and added shading with my Tombow pens. I really liked all the different ways I incorporated tonal areas into my sketches during my urban sketch session at the market in Tavira yesterday. I love colour too much to forego it and only create tonal sketches, but I really like the look of the occasional tonal sketch, or tonal areas within a sketch to help the focal point stand out, or tonal sketches with a spot colour for a focal point.
Sketching from the TV
Last night and into the early hours of this morning I was watching TV, but not really watching it. Instead I did freeze frame sketches of characters from a couple of different series. It was good practice for sketching noses, and although my first couple of attempts were a bit useless, they improved as the sketching session progressed and the size of the portraits increased.
I need to practice drawing noses on small faces using the minimal amount of lines. I tend to want to add too much information in, and there’s just not enough room to make features look good in such a small space.
This was another opportunity to do some tonal shading with my Tombow pens. I’m really starting to love using these watercolour brush pens. I have quite a selection that I’ve accumulated over the years, but haven’t really go into the groove about using them. But within the past couple of months – probably since doing the speed sketching events each week – I’ve been embracing the Tombows, my pencils, and my watercolour pencils a lot more.
I just need to explore them more, and figure how which ones I want to take to Toulouse with me. My watercolour palette is set, but I don’t want to overload myself with too many art materials. But I have plenty of time to experiment with all of the art materials I have and determine which ones I’d really use for the symposium in Toulouse.
Sketching from Social Media
Once final portrait today. I captured Jon Stewart. The news drives me crazy, but his satirical take on what’s happening in the US, is a pleasing distraction.
The portrait is ok, but I really love the background I created with one of the pale grey Tombow pens. It’s elevated a place white background into something interesting, without being distracting. I’m going to have to remember to use this sketch technique in the future.
