Character Cluster scene urban sketch

Choosing the right Sketch Book to experiment

Stillman & Birn sketchbooks aren’t cheap, but I got a free one at the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse this year, and the local art shop had a sale on them during the event, so I picked up three more in their series.

During my Greek Island Adventure I used the Alpha Series 14cm x 9cm horizontal sketchbook, and the beauty of using a sketchbook with lightweight watercolour paper is that you’re less precious about your sketches. You can use it as a place to experiment rather than a place for a set of perfect travel sketches.

Here’s three sketching style preferences I discovered during my five weeks of traveling through the Greek islands:

• Border vs. No Border
• Character Cluster of People Sketches
• Combining Colour and Monochromatic

Border vs. No Border

I started sketching in this S&B sketchbook without taping a border on the page, but I did take a roll of washi tape with me, and after a few sketches I did my best to remember to add a border. I haven’t historically worried about a border, but on this small page this area of negative space gives the sketch room to breathe.

Another benefit of establishing a border before I start sketching is that I frequently run out of space for feet, but if you have a border, it can act as a safety zone so that you can make a little bit of the sketch encroach into the border area.

It’s so easy to fill up the entire page if you begin sketching quickly and have a tendency not to plan your sketches. I know I’m guilty of that, so I’m going to embrace that approach of creating that negative space around my sketch. I think it’ll work just as well on larger format pages, but it’s especially pleasing to the eye on these smaller sketches.

I’ve frequently sketched group scenes. Sometimes a group sketch depicts the scene I’m observing, but other times I cobble the scene together from individual subjects. Both of these are organised scenes, but there’s another way to bring multiple people sketches onto one page, and that’s by creating a character cluster.

In drawing and concept art, a character cluster (often called a character sheet, lineup, or study) groups multiple figures together on a single page to explore designs, poses, expressions, or scale.

Character Cluster of People Sketches

Character Clusters are where you groups multiple figures together on one page to explore different poses and expressions, or play around with scale. During my travel sketching in Greece, I took two different approaches. The first was a chaotic cluster of body parts that overlapped and was a little difficult to figure out unless you studied the sketch. The second was to create a layout that was a little more organised.

In both of these methods the layout isn’t planned. You just pick the people you want to start sketching, and then build the scene around them, and just keep adding additional people.

I think if you do this enough times, you’ll get a sense of what layout shapes have the most impact. Establish a focal point is a key part of these cluster pages – so that you stop your sketches from being overwhelming – then you can strengthen that focal point by using colour of tone.

Combining Colour and Monochromatic

I’ve been a quandary about whether to continue with watercolour or divert towards ink only sketches, because I really like the look of monochromatic sketches. But during my travels I tried merging black and white areas within a colour sketch.

It’s clear you don’t have to choose between these two sketching styles, it’s much more fun to combine the two together.