Riding the Tube with No Pants (or feet) Sketch

My most repeated sketching problem with I’m urban sketching people who are standing up, is running out of space at the bottom of the page. Which means I run out of room to sketch the feet. But I’m not alone. I’ve read that it’s a very common problem for sketchers.

How Not to Fix Running out of Space

When I really want feet on a figure, I’ll sometimes shorten the legs, so the poor person has a long torso and short stumpy legs – ah, but at least there’s room for feet!

But trying to fix the mistake like this, actually just draws your eye to the person even more, because they look weirdly out of proportion. Of course, if the out of proportion figure is the focal point in the scene, then maybe you want to make them look weird! – but most of the time, you probably don’t.

Best Way to Fix Running out of Space

If you realise you’re started your sketch too low on the page, and are running out of space, it’s better to just let the legs taper off towards the edge of the page.

The examples below show how I’ve used my ink lines and watercolour to approach the problem of running out of space, and my thoughts on which approach I think works best.

Letting Legs Taper Out

In the past I’ve thought this approach would look odd. But the other day I created my own version of a Per Ragnar Møkleby sketch (to familiarise myself with his line style), and I copied his style choice of letting legs taper out, and I liked it.

No Feet: I Dare You Sketch example

In this example, there wouldn’t have been enough space to include the musician’s legs all the way down to the feet. But I’m assuming Per didn’t want to have overlap between the foreground and mid-ground figures, so he let the legs taper out. This approach for sketching partial legs if an effective creates a much simpler and clutter-free look. I think it also adds a sense of movement to the musicians.

No Feet: Saida example

In this example I was trying to capture his gesture correctly. I started with the big shape of the guys coat, but didn’t leave enough room for his legs so just let the ink lines taper out.

When I added the watercolour, I left more white at the bottom of the trousers to enhance the feeling of them disappearing out of frame. I think this approach also gives a feeling of movement, and it makes the legs look less static.

No Feet: Tavira Market example

This sketching choice of tapering out the legs and leaving white space (in the example above) looks much better than inking and painting all the way to the edge of the paper, like I did in the example sketch below.

The tomatoes were the focal point in this sketch, so I wanted the scene to have a tighter crop, and didn’t actually want the feet in the sketch. But it would have looked better to let the ink lines taper out, and leave some white at the bottom of the trousers.

No Feet: Euston Station example

Here’s another example where I painted and sketched all the way to the bottom of the page. I started sketching the tall guy on the left and ran out of space, and then struggled to get the full-length of the other figures into the frame.

I could have continued this sketch a better way when I realised my first figure was too tall for the page (ok … when I started sketching the figure too far down the page).

Rather than keeping to the figure dimensions in-line with the source photo, I should have made the other 4 figures a bit smaller to get their feet in. This would have made this group of figures seem further in the background, and pushed the guy without feet into the role as the focal point.

As it stands, rather than the focus being the fact that they’re all standing there in their underwear, the focal point is the mass of missing and partial pairs of shoes and boots. It just looks odd – and definitely unplanned.

No Feet: Santa Monica Farmer’s Market example

In this Santa Monica Farmer’s market sketch from 2021 I used two different methods for tapering out the legs. For the figures on the left, I drew the lines down to the bottom of the page, and filled them in with watercolour, but on the lady with the striped backpack, the lines tapered out, and I left white areas.

When I compare the approach of leaving white, and not leaving any white areas, the first option just looks so much better. It really does make a figure look less static. It’s that combination of lost lines and white space.

Cutting off Feet in a Sketch is a Common Problem

As you can see, I’ve been running out of space to sketch feet for years!

It was reassuring to read on multiple blogs, that not having enough room to sketch a pair of feet is a common problem for sketchers. But it’s disappointing to realise that I’ve been doing the same thing for at least 5 years.

So here we are in 2026. I’ve acquired a sketching technique about the best way to handle line and colour when I run out of space to sketch feet:

• Don’t sketch your ink lines to the bottom of the page, taper them out before you reach the bottom of the page
• Don’t add watercolour all the way to the bottom of the page, leave some white space at the bottom of the leg

…. but this shouldn’t be my default solution.

It’s about time I plan my people sketches better, so I leave myself enough space to sketch a pair of shoes!