Getting layout inspiration from Eddie Cool Monk’s comic strip style sketches and layout. I look at some of his different shading and colouring techniques and assess the impact they have on the page layout and feel.

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.

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.

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 129 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. Today I sketched a couple of people in Tavira and added some poetic reportage to these otherwise uneventful scenes. I also did a bit of portrait practice back at home.

Day 127 of sketching people in the waiting room of a government office in Faro. Experimenting with page layout by adding signs to help convey the location of the sketch, and filling negative space with some poetic reportage.

Day 125 of sketching people at cafés in Tavira and Cabanas. Experimenting with page layout and composition, to see how well overlapping figures, and using V and L shapes layouts works.

Day 116 of sketching people. Experimenting with the Pilot V7 pen to create ink bleed for tonal shading on monochromatic people sketches. Exploring how to use the Envelope Method to map out simple shapes for a strong page composition and layout.

Day 115 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. An array of sketches on coffee-stained pages using water soluble ink and pencils for tonal shading. Followed by a few speed sketches from the Pencils4Tea zoom session.

Day 113 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. A return trip to the hospital, and filling the waiting time with sketches of other people waiting.

In Paris for day 98, 99, and 100 of urban sketching people. Experimenting how to manipulate the line and colour on a page to create a sketch that has a clear visual path and a strong focal point.

Another look at Andrew Tan’s (dreamscape) concepts and approaches for his comic strip style page layouts. This time around we’re looking at his use of limited colour and negative space.

Thanks to some inspiration from urban sketcher Roger Klaassen, I’ve been evaluating his people sketches where he’s included blocks of colour behind his figures, and then experimenting with this technique of adding blocks of colour to my urban sketches to see how they can be improved by the background method.

Using a sketchbook page full of overlapping people from a cafe during a recent urban sketching outing, I’ve analysed the different ways to improve the composition and layout of the sketch using thumbnail sketches. Experimenting with different layouts by adjusting focal point, increasing negative space, and creating a dynamic shape on the page, and making sure to leave space for a title.

Day 79 and 80 of sketching people. Urban Sketching people during my train journeys around the UK. I sketched at Kings Cross, Doncaster, and Hull, on the train, and at the cafe. Experimented with some limited palette compositions.

Day 75 of sketching people. Urban Sketching people in the departures long of Faro Airport, and on the plane from the front row – so lots of toilet queue sketches. Experimenting with different compositions using an outlined oblong shape in the background to tie people and objects together on an A6 page layout.

Day 69 of sketching people. Traveled to Ayamonte Spain for a day of urban sketching. I sketched people at the cafe, a few buildings and an iconic statue in the square in old town. My watercolour pencils saved the day, and I used this day trip to experiment with page layout ideas and using spot colour for areas of focal point.

Day 68 of sketching people. Urban Sketching at a local cafe at the end of the street. Combining people sitting in different parts of the cafe together at a table, and experimenting with compositions for a reportage post.

Day 65 of sketching people. Not much time today, but enough time for a quick coffee at a local cafe and a quick sketch, about being in a foreign country but still able to order scones and clotted cream. This was an experiment in reportage and page composition.

Day 57 of sketching people. A visit to a local bar in Cabanas to sketch in the sunshine to sketch groups of people, to practice compositions with a group of people. And also try out a new sketchbook format in the shape of a photo booth strip of images.

Some ideas and inspiration for creating interesting sketchbook page layouts when urban sketching people.