I sketched my art supplies for the urban sketcher’s symposium in Toulouse. I like ink lines and watercolour, but I’ve had to pack a few extra supplies because of the workshops I’m attending.

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. I also took a detour from my usual subject matter to sketch a street scene.

I’ve created a set of small watercolour canvases for portraits I do on location. They’re only 8cm x 6cm, and ideal for doing loose quick sketches to give to the subjects I sketch. On the back is a linocut self portrait I created last year.

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.

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 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 137 of sketching people. Urban sketch of men at the IMT office in Faro, with some poetic reportage as social commentary to illustrate the scene, and make the story about the make-shift “Silence” sign.

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 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.

We look at creating a colour wheel using a bright colour triad with cool primary colours, and see the impact analogous colours have on the mood of your sketches. Discover the power of a complimentary colour to create a focal point.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

I’m testing these four different fineliner pens to see which one has the optimal ink bleed for grey tonal shading. I’m considering adding one of these to my must-have urban sketching kit to sketch people.

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 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.