Collection of small figure sketches
Small Figures in Urban Sketches
Lot’s of urban sketchers are confident about sketching inanimate objects, but when it comes to adding people to their sketches, they shy away from it. But by adding small and tiny figures to a sketch gives it a sense of scale, and brings life to a static scene.
There are so many different ways of rendering small figures with varying amounts of detail. As these figures are supporting characters in a sketch (and usually not the focal point), it’s key that we can create them quickly and with a confident and repeatable sketching style.
Small Figures on Small Paper
When I practiced sketching these tiny figures I restricted my drawing space by cutting up small pieces of watercolour paper to create tiny canvases. Then drew some people from memory and others from photographs. It’s a good way to practice how you limit the level of detail in people sketches.
The canvases I created varied between 2cm and 4cm. These seemed quite large to include in an urban sketch, but I decided to start bigger on this round, and then next time around I’ll go even smaller (and even less detail).
You can either cut up lots of small pieces, or cut your watercolour paper into a longer strip to sketch a row of people on it, like the image below.
Tips for Sketching Small Figures
Here’s some observations I came to during this practice session:
- Bodies and legs can be equal size for a standard frame. But it’s ok to make the legs longer to convey a taller person.
- One leg shorter than the other to convey movement.
- Leave white on each element to create depth.
- Add props for variety. (e.g. hats, pets, bags etc.)
- Bleed top clothing into bottom clothing to add looseness.
People Sketching Challenges
Here’s some of the challenges I encountered while creating the feature image:
| Challenge: | Resolution: | Notes: |
| Heads too big or too small. | This is going to improve the more practice I have. If the head is too small or too big, you can use hair and hats to disguise the error so that it’s not noticeable within a larger sketch. | I’ve seen lots of different urban sketchers creating figures with oversized heads or pin heads. If you’re doing this as a style choice, then your heads need to have an element of consistentsy. |
| Starting at the head and making the body too big, which made me run out of space and had to miss feet off. | Before sketching just add 4 little dots. To mark: Top of the Head, Top of the Body, Mid point of the body, and feet. So that you know your figure will fit in the space. | After a slew of practicing I think it will be easy enough to eye-ball the proportions. |
| Some of the postures are off. Making the figures have an unrealistic balance or lean to them. | Draw a quick line of action (in pencil so you can rub it out), to capture a believable gesture. OR Sketch your figure in pencil first and make adjustments before inking your figures. | I much prefer to ink without sketching. I like this intentional approach, but on some of my examples I drew a quick pen line of action – and they’re not too visible once the figures are coloured in. |
| Some of the figures looked flat after I’d inked and painted. | Add 2nd layer of colour if figure to add more depth. |
Style Choice for Sketching Small Figures
My sketches usually have people as the focal point and the surrounding areas are just sense-of-place props.
But now that I’ve started sketching more buildings I want to include smaller figures that add context to the scenes. I love detail, so it’s a challenge to limit the level of detail I could physically include in such a small area.
Stylised vs. Realistic Figures
I’m more comfortable sketching realistic (but smaller) versions of the figures I usually sketch, but that’s not the only approach to adding figures to your scenes. You also have the options of creating a more stylised (and less realistic) figure to your sketches.
For example, in these stylised figures, I’ve just used small circles for heads instead of regular sized ovals, which can be connected to the head, or you can leave a gap between the head and body.
I’m not sold on adopting a stylised approach, but maybe I need to explore this alternative to sketching little people. I think this topic is going to get a lot of airplay on this blog, because it’s not a technique I’m comfortable with yet.
These are inspired. They look so dramatic and full of character. I wish I could sketch like this. Any tips?
Honestly … the only way is to keep practicing.
really helpful information especially the table or problems and solutions. you have a really analytical mind for an creative person.
Ha ha! goes back to my previous life as a project manager I think!
This is something I struggle with all the time. I sketch a lot of buildings, but the streets are left empty because I’m too scared to fill in the small people, incase I ruin my sketch. So I end up leaving them out! HELP!
If you’ve done a sketch, how about trying to add the people with little pencil sketches, and then when you’re happy with the look of them and the placement, just ink them in, or add them with watercolour shapes.