Collection of Photo Booth Sketch Portraits
February Photo Booth Sketches
I got inspired to create my photo booth sketchbook after seeing a post on Instagram about an artist who takes a portable version of a photo booth to events, and sketches the attendees. I was attracted to the idea of sketching the same person multiple times and presenting the portraits in a photo booth format.
This size of portrait is good practice for my urban sketching adventures. The people I usually sketch are a similar proportion, so the more practice I can get to simplify my lines is time well spent. It’s also great to practice sketching the same faces multiple times. This gives me a chance to try something new, or improve on a particular aspect of the sketch. I’ve been trying to capture different facial expressions or different angles, within each set. But when I’m sketching Uber drivers, I’ve had to use different layouts (zooming in and out), because the head position doesn’t change much.
For the outdoor sketches, I’ve also been capturing the colour of the sky. So these photo booth portraits also convey the current weather conditions. There’s not much room in each “photo” to include much information, so the inclusion of the sky adds another element to the story.
For the indoor sketches I’ve just been adding a complimentary background colour. I always sketch the subject first, and then figure out which colour might look best based on the limited palette I’ve used. I’m really interested in using colour triads, and these photo booth portraits give me a chance to play around with different colour combinations and triads. Then if I discover any eye-catching colour combinations, they can be incorporated into my urban sketching tool-kit.
Making my Photo Booth Sketchbook
This month I used my binding tool to create a sketchbook to keep my photo booth sketches together. The cover is made out of a recycled Amazon shipping box. The front cover was my first photo booth sketches, and I prettied up the back cover with some of the flowers from my doodle art collection.
The dimensions of the interior pages are 21cm x 5cm, the cover pages are slightly bigger in all directions. Then I used a Zutter binding machine to attach the spiral. I wanted this book to have a rough-and-ready feel to it. A bit scruffy and lived in. This way I won’t get too precious about how battered it gets, or how imperfect the portraits are.
The two pieces of corrugated cardboard I used for the cover, create a really solid base for sketching on. It’s a perfect sketchbook to hold in one hand while standing up to sketch.
This was my prototype version for February so I only included 14 pages, that way I have one for every day of the month. I’m going to sketch on one side, and then turn the book around and sketch on the back of the pages.
I thought I’d only sketch one of these sketch-strips a day, but I have a feeling I’m going to do more and more. As soon as my new delivery of spiral bindings arrive, I’ll be making my next version of this sketchbook, with more pages in it.
