Day 53 of sketching people in ink and watercolour. A quick jaunt down to a neighbourhood bar to urban sketch a couple sitting outside, huddled up against the weather on a chilly Sunday afternoon. This sketch taught me a couple of valuable lessons about ink lines and the use of colour.

A blind contour sketch of Urban Sketcher and Illustrator Lis Watkins, to illustrate this post about her sketchbook Tour of Toulouse, where she uses bright and vibrant colours to capture the essence of this French city that’s hosting the new Urban Sketchers Symposium in 2026

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 52 of 365 Days of Sketching People. A couple of urban sketches of people in Tavira, and the sketches I did while attending two tutorials about sketching people with distorted proportions and perspectives.

Day 51 of sketching people and portraits at a local clinic. Using gesture sketches, and added ink lines and watercolour. Created colour harmony with a vivid colour triad opera pink, hansa yellow light, and phthalo blue. Used the colour to create a visual hierarchy within the page layout.

Urban Sketchers Org daily prompt list calendar for February 2026

Revisiting a Marc Tarot Holmes Craftsy tutorial about Sketching People in Motion. Breaking down his approach to gesture sketching in pencil to capture the expressive nature of the line of action. Making me evaluate my decision to always sketch directly in Ink, and hoping gesture sketching will help me fit more feet on my page when I’m urban sketching people from life.

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 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 32 of sketching people. Out and about at Tavira Market, in search of sketching shoppers with dynamic poses. I urban sketched in Pencil and then added ink and watercolour later.

Day 24 of sketching people. A quick and loose urban sketch of a boy waiting for his mum. And at night I attended the speed sketching portrait event with Dylan, and churned out some pretty consistent portraits within the 30 second to 6 minute time limit.

Day Twenty-Three of a 365-day people sketch challenge. Ventured to a cafe for some live sketching of people, and then joined the Drawing is Free speed sketching zoom session for some live portrait practice.

Urban Sketchers Org daily prompt list calendar for January 2026

Refining my urban sketchers watercolour palette for 2026, by replacing Indigo Blue with Cobalt Blue. Exploring the way to mix replacements for my premixed greens. Discovering if I really have a use for my Phthalo Green.

So you’ve started your figures too long on the page, and you don’t have room to sketch the feet? It’s a common problem. Here’s a review of how to use ink lines and watercolour to approach the problem of running out of room at the bottom of the page when people sketches. My thoughts on which approach works best, and what doesn’t look good.

On day five of the people sketching challenge, I sketched from a video and share a creative tracker that helped to focus creative intentions and activities. I also did the Earthsworld Portrait Challenge.

A roundup of the Draw This In Your Style challenges I attempted this week including a couple of floral adorned buildings.

Back to gesture drawing with short timed poses from Gesture Drawing Party on YouTube. Good practice for Urban Sketching.

What is Ink and Wash style of urban sketching and where can you go to find inspiration for developing your line and wash style.

An overview of the colours in my urban sketching palette and why they’re in there.

Here’s some tips and inspiration when you’re looking to refine your urban sketching watercolour palette to create a set that will be useful in any scenario. I worked with Jane Blundell a colour triad and watercolour mixing aficionado, to revamp my palette, and create one that would work for the subjects I like to paint.

Here’s some tips for sketching groups of people, without getting overwhelmed by the crowds and complexity in your scene.

A day out at the Vila Real beach fair to sketch people, and using it to learn what art tools I actually need in my urban sketching kit.

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