Sketch of a tourist sitting at a fountain in Rome
Day One Hundred and Sixty-Nine and Seventy of Sketching People
Continuing on with day 169-170 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour, with a collection of people sketches during our stay in Athens and visit to Rome. A mix or urban sketching people live, and a couple of sketching people from photos I took.
Sketching People in Athens
On our last night in Athens we went to a lovely wine bar and had a flight of local wines. They had an app with a game where you had to identify the aromas of the wine. I hadn’t seen this before, and it was a great way to practice your wine connoisseur tendencies. We loved all but one of the wines – blah to the chardonnay. I took this photo of one of the waiters and sketched it at the airport the next day. I’m a sucker for a striped shirt.
I really like the looseness of the glasses hanging off the shelf. Often when you sketch from a photo, it can end up looking stiff or lifeless, but this repetitive pattern of the glasses turned out really well. I like the greys and beige background against the clothes of little boy blue.
We were carolled into the departure gate area early, and I sketched this trio who were seated around us. We actually saw this rasta guy again next day in Rome when we were sightseeing.
Sketching People in Rome
On our second night in Rome we went to dinner at Da Otello in the Trastevere neighbourhood where we were staying. There was a big family group chatting and laughing. at an adjacent table, so I snapped a quick photo to sketch when I got back to the apartment. I used a warm colour for the clothes of the people in the foreground, and used a cool blue for the wall tiles. I wish I’d left the guy in the mid-ground who was facing us as an ink line sketch, rather than adding watercolour. Even though I kept his colouring neutral, by adding the watercolour I lose some of the feeling of depth within the scene.
This sketch of a tourist sitting on the fountain Dell’Adriatico was done from another photo I took. The perspective of the buildings in the background is off – they all look a little tilted, but I’m glad I left them as monochromatic. Did I mention I’m a sucker for sketching a striped shirt?!
This lady was sitting opposite me on the bus during our last night journey to our pasta making class, she was listening intently, but had such a bored look on her face. So I snapped a sneaky photo and sketched her while I was at the airport the next day. I think fingers are amongst one of my favourite things to sketch.
A couple of rough and ready sketches at Rome airport. This trio were walking down the corridor, so had to be done really quickly. I like the composition of one primary sketch with a background element, and the rest of the page taken up with smaller sketches. The food at Rome Airport is the best I’ve seen or experienced at any of the airports I’ve ever been too. And it wasn’t being sold at Airport prices. Their branding is Eataly (as apposed to Italy) – and they’re owning that concept.
I can’t quite believe our five-week travel adventure has come to a close, and we’re heading back home. I still have some blank pages in my small travel sketchbook, so I’m going to go through my photos from the trip, and fill the book up with sketches from photos I took.
