Although I’ve sidetracked sketching boats from photographs for Doug Jackson’s Boatober 2025 challenge, my real passion is sketching people from life. And most days in October, I’ve been visiting cafes in Cabanas to sketch my fellow sitters.

During the summer months, it’s too busy to become an urban sketcher squatting in a cafe for an extended period of time. But the arrival of autumn means that lingering at a cafe to sketch – becomes a guilt-free activity.

I used to avoid sketching groups of people, and opted instead to sketch individuals. But over time, I’m more interested in creating scenes that convey a story. So here’s a few tips that have helped me to simplify my sketching process, and avoid being overwhelmed with a busy group scene.

Sketching Groups of People

This group scene was the last sketch I did for the Kick in the Creatives 365 days of Urban Sketching People challenge. I started with the first couple because I liked how closely they were sitting together with their elbows touching.

Sketch What Inspires You

I like sketching groups of people at the cafe, but I have to be inspired by a hair style or facial features, an item of clothing, their body language, or how they’re sitting. When one of these elements captures my attention, I start with that person, and wait for other “interesting elements” to enter the scene. If the cafe is busy enough, customers are constantly cycling in and out of the scene.

Sketch a Fabricated Scene

I’d much rather wait for inspiration, than try and force myself to sketch somebody who doesn’t inspire me. The group I end up sketching is jumbled together from subjects with interesting elements. Most likely my group weren’t even sitting down at the same time together.

Your sketches are your version of reality. A group cafe scene is usually a compilation of individual moments that you’re using your creative input to craft into a scene.

You Don’t Have to Sketch Everything

I used to always feel I had to paint all the tables and chairs, but in a scene this busy in an A6 sized double page spread, it would have been too cluttered and busy. But the addition of the sun umbrellas helps to tell the story and set the scene. And the people’s posture clearly indicates that they’re sitting down.

Take a Frankenstein Approach to Sketching People

When I visited Vila Real Santo António fair in October, I focused on sketching and painting two group scenes. The hoards of people attending the fair wandered in and out of my scene, but I chose a static person as my focal point, and then built the scene around him.

Some of the people were compilations of multiple people. For example, the hair and upper body of one person, and the legs of another. Being open to cobbling together realistic sketches from multiple subjects, allows you more time to complete each person and reduces some of the anxiety of sketching fast-moving people.

Avoid Getting Overwhelmed

Sketching groups can be really overwhelming, so it’s best to focus on sketching one person, and then build out your group scene around. Approaching your group sketch as individual elements really helps to focus your attention on sketching one person at a time. This way you can work your way up to creating a complex scene in bite-sized chunks.