Day 128 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. Today I sketched a couple of sunburned people at the café and added some poetic reportage to capture the scene. I also added coffee stained backgrounds.

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 124 of sketching people at Faro hospital, where I added a bit of poetry to my sketch to memorialise the moment with a bit of reportage. Also continued my fasciation with biro portraits, using Earthsworld photo references.

Here’s an image gallery of my urban sketches of people where I’ve add a bit of social or cultural commentary in poetic form to elevate my illustrations into reportage.

Day 123 of sketching people at a local cafe. Added a bit of poetry to a couple of my sketches for a bit of reportage. Also continued my fasciation with biro portraits.

Day 121 of sketching people. Biro sketches with tonal shading from online resource images, and a couple of urban sketches at the cafe in ink and watercolour.

Day 105 of sketching during a day our flight out of Lille. I sketched people before our flight and during our flight. A good end to our trip, with some pleasing people sketches completed.

In Ghent for day 101 of sketching people at the flea market and captured a bit of reportage sketching at the cafe, illustrated with a short poem about their dormant cell phones.

Day 94 of sketching people at a live sketching event at a local art gallery. I faced the dilemma of wanting to add colour to my sketches but having to wait for the page to dry before I could begin another sketch.

Day 72 of sketching people. Urban Sketching people at the cafe at the end of the street. Playing around with compositions to leave enough negative space so my sketches can breathe. Also added text, social commentary, and overheard conversations to turn these urban sketches into reportage.

Day 71 of sketching people. A morning urban sketching people at cafes and a mobile screening unit in Tavira. Experimenting with different backgrounds and page layout compositions.

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 59 of sketching people. A reportage sketch with a restaurant bill as some collage fodder, and a Valentine’s Day Poem to develop a story around a scene I only saw for a couple of minutes. Sometimes you need to invent your own story, when you have no idea what’s going on.

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.

An in-depth post about how to evaluate whether your people sketch is successful. Discussing the merits of technical accuracy vs. the value of finding and conveying the story in your sketch. Peppered with examples, this article talks about how to get your sketch to show a story, rather than telling a story. And using text to turn your sketch into reportage.

Day 47 of sketching people, a busy day at the Tavira second hand market, municipal market, and at a nearby café. Also sketched my uber driver going there and coming back. Different people sketching styles, and some interesting perspectives and colour choices.

Day 45 of sketching people. Sketches of Suhita Shirodkar, an urban sketchers who is presenting a lecture and demo at the next Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse.

Day 42 of Sketching people in ink and watercolour. Three urban sketches capturing daily observation commentary at Faro Airport in Portugal. Experimenting with reportage by adding text to two of the sketches, and a short poem about my urban sketching experience at the airport.

Day 41 of sketching people. Sketches of Delphine Zigoni, Len Grant, and Rita Sabler, three urban sketchers who are presenting a lecture at the next Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse.

This is my first Reportage Urban Sketcher Profile, and features Norwegian illustrator Per Ragnar Møkleby. I cover Per’s method for using text to convey mood, embracing wonky lines, not being a slave to reality, daring to urban sketch, sketching complex scenes with simplified figures, and how self-portraits can save the day.

Day 40a of sketching people. A collection of sketches of instructors who are hosting workshops at the next Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse. Sketched from their promo videos

Day 39 of Sketching people in ink and watercolour. Social Commentary urban sketch with a short poem about doom scrolling, and today’s Earthsworld portrait challenge from Facebook.

Day 34 of sketching people. Urban Sketching at the Tavira Plaza, in the food hall and at the medical centre. Leveraged Oliver Hoeller’s approach to assess the plan of attack for the why, what, and how of approaching your sketch. Dabbled in a bit of reportage, and resorted to some blind contour people sketches when I didn’t feel like achieving accuracy.