When Couples Clash, Distance is Essential sketch

Day Seventy-Two of Sketching People

Day 72 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. Urban sketching at a the cafe in Cabanas.

Urban Sketching at the Cafe

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a New Zealand accent, but it was difficult not to overhear this lady’s conversation about her new hair cut, and bars her friend needed to visit in Cabo, Mexico. The puffa-jacket she was wearing was really voluminous and difficult to capture quickly, but I liked how her hair turned out. That to me was the focal point of the sketch, so that’s why I added this bit of text about her recent haircut.

This guy sitting at the table next to me was within touching distance, so I couldn’t really sketch him without being noticed until he turned to start eating his scone and drinking his coffee.

I started this as a pencil sketch so that I could get the angle of his hands right. But also had to use my own hands as models to get the position of the fingers to be believable, because he didn’t hold this pose long enough for me to sketch. I like how it turned out.

I also had the afternoon snack special of a scone and coffee, so incorporated this bit of text into the image to experiment with the placement of text alongside people sketches.

These two woman were my first sketch, and it’s the one I like the least. These women were chatting with the Canadians on the adjacent table, and were moving about a lot. So it took me a while to capture the poses, and the sketches lost a bit of the energy and dynamism of poses I’m able to capture more quickly.

Also, because it was the first sketch of the day, I don’t think my hand-eye coordination was fully warmed up. And I wasn’t really inspired to sketch them, but the cafe was quite empty when I arrived, so available models were at a premium.

This sketch was of a couple at the far end of the cafe. They were seated quite far apart, and I wanted to create the shape of a V, with both of them leaning back. Sketching people facing left feels natural to sketch, but having them face right doesn’t feel as easy to capture. So the sketch of the lady worked out ok, but I didn’t get the posture of the guy quite right, and I didn’t capture his leaning posture as well.

After I’d sketched them, it was time to leave because it was getting chilly. So I painted my sketches at home. I wasn’t sure how to finish off this double page spread. But then I added the watercolour, and for some reason I chose colours that clashed, and that’s when the inspiration for the text happened. I wanted add a play on words about the distance between them.

Apart from the first sketch of the close up of the two Canadian ladies, I managed weave quite a lot of negative space into these sketches. It’s something I’ve been actively thinking about, but when I start sketching I forget about leaving space for my sketches to breathe. So today was a good day for negative space. I’m also being more mindful about adding social commentary, observations, and overheard conversations to turn these ordinary urban sketches into reportage.