Posted in 365 Days of Sketching People #3, Art Room

Fineliner People Sketches for Dylan’s Expressive Portrait Class (Day 117-119)

   Published Date: May 17, 2026  Leave a Comment on Fineliner People Sketches for Dylan’s Expressive Portrait Class (Day 117-119)
2 minutes sketches of the same reference image of a women in a headscarf. Using finalise pen and minimal lines 
2 minute sketches

Day One Hundred and Seventeen to Nineteen of Sketching People

Continuing on with day 117-119 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. Quick sketches using a fine liner for the Dyan Sara’s Expressive Portraits Class.

First week of Expressive Portraits

This week is all about using minimal lines to create fineliner portraits. I’m usually a stick in the mud about my materials. I love my fountain pens, but I’m going along with the change in art tools each week. You never know what you’re going to discover when you mix up your creative approach.

I really love the idea of simplifying lines on a sketch. Less really is more. You’d think that it would be easy to draw less, but it does take some concentrated practice. It all boils down to looking at the tonal values, and picking out the areas with the highest level of contrast – the blackest blacks – and sketching those, and ignoring the greys.

Dylan has created a series of shorter than usual videos for each of his tutorials, which is great, because I really do struggle to concentrate on tutorials when they’re 90 minutes long. He also set some homework, and one of the ideas was to just do a lot of 2 minute portraits. It doesn’t sound like long, but it’s actually plenty long enough to sketch a portrait if you use minimal lines and simplify what you see.

To begin with I started adding shading to the simple line sketches, but I didn’t add any tone to the guy on the right. I really like his simplified form, and held back from adding tone, and talked myself into doing more of the same.

2 minutes portrait sketches of the same reference image of different people. Using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes portrait sketches of the same reference image of different people. Using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines

Every now and then I decided to do a longer study and experiment with tonal shading.

2 minutes sketches of the same reference image of a man. Using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes portrait sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes portrait sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines

It’s good to experiment with a blind contour every now and then. They’re useful with you’re getting lost in your on lines, and need to hit the refresh button. The level of expectation on a blind contour is low, so they never disappoint – no matter what you end up with.

2 minutes sketches of the same reference image of a man. Using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes sketches using fineliner pen and minimal lines

This next one is a self-portrait, and I really tried to pay attention to what wasn’t working, and to see how I could improve the angles and alignment of different elements. I can see me in this, which is quite amazing based on the simplified lines I used. I learned that the lips look better when you don’t draw a line for the upper lip. The priority is to sketch the dark area where the lips meet.

2 minutes sketches of the same reference image of a women. Using fineliner pen and minimal lines
2 minutes sketches using fineliner and minimal lines

I really liked the progression on this sketch. I really loved the shaped of the glasses and eyes on the photo reference, and in the first couple of sketches I spent too long with that detail and didn’t get much of the outline. So in the third sketch I started by thoughtfully sketching the outline contour before starting on the features, but I ran out of time. On the last effort, I quickly sketched the outline contour which ended up a bit wobbly and loose, but it meant I had enough time to draw all of the features. So from this I realised it’s important to get a loose overall shape down, before starting on the simplified features.

2 minutes sketches of the same reference image of a women in a headscarf. Using finalise pen and minimal lines
Headscarf woman 2 mins simplified lines

I really like this photo reference, it was a lady on the metro in Lille France from my recent trip. So I did a ten minute sketch, and rather than adding more detail on the face, I spent the extra time sketching the clothing and headscarf.

10 minutes sketch of the same reference image of a women in a headscarf. Using finalise pen and minimal lines
Headscarf woman 10 mins simplified lines

I really like the simplified features in this sketch, and this simplification is something that’ll be really beneficial with urban sketching people.

I’m going to have to keep going with the daily practice of 2 minute sketches, because it has really been beneficial for creating a stronger hand eye coordination.

This week Dylan’s tutorials are moving on from fineliner, and onto biro. I don’t think I’ve even sketched in biro, so it’s going to be interesting.

Author: Roving Jay

Jay is a project manager who swapped corporate life for a nomadic existence as a travel writer and urban sketcher. Jay has published travel guides, nonfiction writing books, and poetry collections.

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