Overlapping people in an urban sketch

Sketching People using Overlapping Composition

I often sketch people in cafes and in public places, and historically my pages have ended up as a collection of unconnected figures, with no visual flow. The sketches are pleasing, but the page composition leaves a lot to be desired. It’s the lack of layout planning that lets these sketchbook pages down.

Creating a Connection

When I’m drawing multiple figures in the same location, a critical part of the story is to make sure the connection between the figures is evident. My goal is to create a visual relationship between figures when in real life they were unconnected subjects that I want to bring together in a set of related vignettes.

Overlapping Elements

The solution is to overlap elements to enforce that physical connection, which also helps to accentuate the flow between elements. And in the sketch below I used an overlapping head against a body, a knee against a knee, and an elbow in the back!

Although I created an overlapping connection between the subjects, there are definitely area of improvement I could incorporate into the next time I sketch a similar scene (and I know there will be many next times).

Leave Enough Negative Space

This sketch layout would have worked better without the three figures on the lower right hand corner of the page, which makes a busy page look more cramped than it already is. Leaving some white space in that corner would have given this sketch room to breathe.

Using Thumbnails to Create Different Layouts

As well as leaving more negative space, I could have created a more successful composition by having a stronger focal point using colour or line variation, rearranging the subjects to create a dynamic shape, or using object repetition to highlight connections.

Here’s some thumbnail sketches I created from this sketchbook page to experiment with different layouts – still using overlapping figures, but without those three additional figures.

Thumbnail Example A

1. Overlapping Figures
2. Strong Focal Point using Colour, Line, or Tone

Thumbnail Example B

1. Overlapping Figures
2. Strong Focal Point using Colour, Line, or Tone
3. Increase feeling of depth by reducing the size of the distant pair of figures

Thumbnail Example C

1. Overlapping Figures
2. Create depth by making the background pair of figures a tonal sketch
3. Use line or colour to create a focal point of the largest subjects
4. Reduce the saturation or line weight of the other foreground figure
5. Object repetition of the chairs to indicate they’re all in the same location

Thumbnail Example D

1. Overlapping Figures
2. Strong Focal Point using Colour, Line, or Tone
3. Leave negative space in the middle of the figures, to create a circular flow

Thumbnail Example E

1. Overlapping Figures
2. Create a dynamic layout using a V-shaped negative space in the centre of the page. This layout also has a strong feeling of a reverse L-shape.
3. Strong Focal Point using Colour, Line, or Tone
4. Reduce the emphasis of the largest figure by pushing them into the background and having them as a tonal sketch
5. Moving the two figures from upper left, to lower right, and placing in individual frames

There’s numerous variations we can create by mixing and matching the composition decisions noted above. But one of the most important elements to be included in any sketch, is a strong focal point.

This focal point can be achieved in so many different ways, whether it’s through:

• a variation in line
• the use of warm or cool colours
• the use of saturated and desaturated colours
• the increase of decrease of tonal values and contrast, or
• the specific placement of a subject or object on a page

And of course, a focal point can employ multiple options to increase its level of importance within a sketch.

How Much Planning is Feasible when Sketching People?

These thumbnail sketches have given me some ideas about how I could continue to sketch organically but also let my page evolve into an interesting and strong composition.

The trouble with sketching multiple people on a page is that it’s difficult to plan. Quite often I’m sitting there and waiting for my next subjects to show up, so I don’t know who I’m going to add to the page.

I’ll probably never get to the stage where I’m planning out a page of people with a thumbnail, but once I’ve sketched my initial figures on a page, it’s important to have an idea of the focal point and visual flow of the composition, before I continue with the sketch.