At the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse this year I started a severe fascination about drawing wonky lines, and I wondered why a confident loose, quick, and wonky line looks so much better than a thoughtfully slowly rendered straight line. The Laws of Gestalt Psychology help to explain this phenomenon and also help to quiet your inner critic.

At the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse I attended the Peter Rush demonstration to experience his method of capturing s street scene that includes adding in, rather than ignoring, street signs, traffic lights, posts, recycle bins, and other street furniture and urban elements that give the street it’s personality. I took inspiration for this style of sketching along onto Saturday’s Sketch Crawl in Toulouse, and have started to use it now that I’m back home.

The Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse was a four day event and I sketched people every day during the workshops, lectures, and demonstrations, as well as while I was exploring the streets of Toulouse.

Day 147 of sketching people during a speed sketching Zoom event hosted by Chloe at Drawing is Free. Using a limited set of art materials, so that I focused on the line and shade rather than colour.

My second workshop at the Toulouse Urban Sketcher’s Symposium with Veronica Lawlor which was all about reportage and capturing stories with your sketches. We did warm up exercises to familiarise ourselves with the area using vignettes and thumbnails, and let our stories evolve organically from the elements that interested and intrigued us.

Day 145 of sketching people during a speed sketching Zoom event hosted by Chloe at Drawing is Free. Using a limited palette to explore the impact of colour on feeling and mood of a portrait.

Exploring an interesting colour triad for Toulouse buildings and street scenes. The Manganese Blue Hue provides a bright and vivid contrast to the opaque mixes created by the Indian Red and Buff Titanium.

Urban sketch of a building in Conceição de Tavira Urban Sketching a Street Scene On the way back home from…

Day 143 and 144 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. I seem to have a penchant for sketching people on their phones. In one sketch I added some poetic reportage, and in the other sketch I used a limited colour palette and sketched my version on the background scene.

Day 142 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. Experimenting with using a bright and a desaturated green from Manganese Blue Hue, to create some colour harmony in my cafe sketches.

Day 141 of sketching people in ink and watercolour, and a short poem to add some social commentary to the scene of a father and son, sharing a meal together, but not sharing a moment of interaction with each other.

Day 140 of urban sketching people, this time a man with flushed cheeks trying to hydrate with beer. I added a little bit of poetic reportage to add some additional “colour” to the sketch.

Day 139 of sketching people during a speed sketching Zoom event hosted by Chloe at Drawing is Free. Using an unrealistic limited palette to explore the impact of colour on feeling and mood of a portrait.

Day 138 of sketching people in ink and watercolour, painted using a colour triad I’ve been exploring. As i watched MOH on the driving range, I took a photo, and then sketched the figure from the photo. But sketched the landscape from reality.

Day 136 of sketching people. Urban sketch of a woman on the phone, using a bright colour triad and an analogous colour combination. Also added some poetic reportage, and sketched oversized hands to help to create a strong focal point in this composition.

Day 135 of sketching people during a speed sketching Zoom event hosted by Chloe at Drawing is Free. Using small format watercolour paper to limit the size of my portraits.

Sunday morning sketch in Cabanas capturing a street scene with bougainvillea in ink and watercolour, using a colour triad to ensure colour harmony, which is especially useful when you’re sketching lots of foliage.

Day 134 of sketching people. Speed sketching with Pencils4tea onto collaged paper with Portuguese text, and an urban sketch at a cafe using analogous colour palette from a bright colour triad, and a complimentary colour for balance.

Day 133 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. Urban sketch at a local cafe of a man with a pastel de nata, and a portrait sketch of Koosje Koene using a limited colour palette inspired by Ludivine Alligier’s tutorial about creating contrast with colour and text. Both sketches with some poetic reportage.

Day 132 of sketching people. Drawing is Free speed sketching event on zoom. Sketched a series of portraits, where every pose is the length of a music track. Continuing with a Sailor Fude pen to vary the line weight. Also did the Drawing Earthsworld daily portrait hosted on Facebook.

Day 131 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. A couple of examples of poetic reportage – one at the cafe on a coffee-stained page, and one at the beach with multiple sketches of the same subject.

Another outing with the Algarve Plein Air Collective, this time to sketch foliage and a statue in a park scene. Where I moved foliage and a park bench around in my sketch to create a strong L-shaped composition.

Day 130 of sketching people. Drawing is Free speed sketching event on zoom. Sketched a series of portraits, where every pose is the length of a music track. Experimenting with a Sailor Fude pen to vary the line weight.

My first outing with the Algarve Plein Air Collective. Although we were on the Cabanas boardwalk to sketch the boats in the water, I was drawn to the Sunflower, in front of our local newsagents, which had its face turned towards the morning sun.