Urban Sketch at the cafe
Day Seventy-One of Sketching People
Day 71 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. Urban sketching at a couple of different cafes in Tavira, and a sketch while I waited outside the mobile screening unit.
Urban Sketch and Inhaling Smoke
Seriously, it wasn’t even 9am, and I was already engulfed in a cloud of smoke! And I wasn’t the only one. Everyone waiting for their turn in the mobile screening unit was enjoying one woman’s cigarette. It’s a disgusting habit. I used to smoke, but I was at least mindful of those around me, and if it wasn’t a designated smoking corner, I’d take myself off to an area where my smoke wouldn’t bother anyone. Anyway, rant over. The ladies running this mobile unit were fabulous, and it was a quick in and out for my screening. But I hung around before and afterwards to finish off my sketch.
The lady on the left of this sketch was waiting for her appointment before me, and I managed to sketch her before she got called away. And then I added the phantom puffer. I loved her haircut, nose, and big glasses – not keen on her habit though. Once I had these two figures on the page, I thought about what I could sketch to bring the two together, and decided to sketch a bit of the screening unit wagon. I added the text to create a bit of social commentary.
Urban Sketching at Originato Cafe
I was surprised by how beautiful the granola bowl I ordered looked, so I just had to sketch it. I’m not usually one to sketch my food before I eat it, but I thought it’d be a good exercise in continuous line drawing – and it was. The guy was sitting at the next table, so I sketched him behind my breakfast bowl, and then to tie the two together, I added the border and filled in the background with a grey Tombow dual brush pen.
On the other side of me were two ladies, and I did closer up views of both of them, and squished them together in the scene to create a V-shape. They were facing each other and both quite chatty, but I didn’t get the eyes right, and there’s not enough visual connection between these two figures. I read somewhere about adding background colours or shading behind the verb. The very was talking, so I drew the background line mid-way down their faces to encompass their mouths. I like the skin tone watercolour effect of the lady on the left – I think it’s the hard lines that I’m happy with.
Of course they weren’t wearing bright colours like this, but it’s no fun sketching black, grey and tan ensembles all the time. Bring back the eighties, when pink and lime green were all the rage!
Urban Sketching at Quinito Cafe
This is a popular cafe for my sketching adventures, but I haven’t been there for a while. These two American’s were both leaning back on their seats, and I liked the shape they created. More of a U-shape than a V-shape. I like the style of not including the chairs, and leaving some on the body on both of them unfinished.
The house on the other side of the street was this mustard yellow, so I incorporated it into the sketch to create a textured background. I like the look created by the use of primary colours in this sketch.
In the final sketch at the same cafe, I added in details of the background house, and added some of the objects from the cafe – a folded parasol and a menu board. The guy had a bag on a chair behind him, and I half finished this part of the sketch, to give it a looser feel, rather than sketching the bag completely and sketching the chair it was on.
I’ve always felt uncomfortable by not sketching people and objects completely – taking my lines to the edge of the page, but I’m gradually learning to embrace this unfinished look. And also leaving a bit more white or negative space so that the sketches have room to breathe.
Background Variation
I like the look of the dual-line borders filled in with a light tonal shade on the first two cafe sketches. It’s especially useful for tying elements together so that the idea of a connection between them is clearly evident.
In the other sketches I used two different ways of colouring the background. One was loose with ragged edges, and the other was more of a line and wash style of filling in the blank space with colour. Both work, but I prefer the background with ragged edges.
