Day Ninety-Six of Sketching People

Day 96 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. A quick sketch at the cafe, and swatching some new skin tone variations with Natural Sienna.

Never Too Busy For A Sketch

A busy day today, but still had time to walk down the road to the cafe on the corner for a cup of coffee and a quick sketch. I took my A5 sketchbook, and was going to sketch a few vignettes on the page, but there was a couple in front of me that I was inspired to sketch, and I decided to draw them big enough to fit the whole page.

I actually super-sized both of them, because I like to exaggerate features and sketch my own version of reality. I also like pushing perspectives, and making some body-parts out of proportion to other body-parts. This is fine, unless the person working at the cafe walks past, compliments your work, and then insists on showing them! The guy I sketched did mention that I’d painted him with more hair than he had, and he wished I’d trimmed a few pounds off him!

How People See Themselves

I painted my MIL a few weeks back, and she said she wasn’t going to photograph it because I’d make her look old (check out my MIL post here), but to be honest, she’s mid-80’s, and looks fabulous. I also did a quick sketch of my Portuguese tutor earlier this year, I thought it was really quite good, but his only comment was that I’d gone his eyes the wrong colour. It was done on purpose, because I like adding Cobalt Turquoise Light blue eyes, because they attract attention as a focal point.

I do feel that people have certain expectations when you sketch them – and one of them is that is meets reality, or their version of reality. People never see themselves how you see them. I don’t want to edit my sketching in an effort to fit people’s version of reality. There’s no way I’d ever win. So I’m just going to have to continue sketching and painting, and exaggerating features, and live with the consequences!

One good thing about the arrival of summer is that when you’re sketching outside, most people will be wearing sunglasses. I sketched a few more portraits at the cafe today. And they looked like floating heads, so I added some blue sky background. What I like about this blob of blue is that it helps to connect the people together.

Swatching a Muted Green

I discovered a beautiful muted desaturated green today, out of Cobalt Turquoise Light and Natural Sienna. This is the perfect green for sketching the chairs at Bar 66, and I think it would be good for foliage when I want it to recede and not be a focal point. I did some swatching when I got home with some other blues to go with the natural sienna, and Manganese Blue Hue and Natural Sienna make a similar muted green that’s a bit more transparent.

I use Manganese Blue Hue in my palette instead of Cerulean Blue because it’s brighter and more vivid. Here in the Algarve, this MBH works better for depicting skies.

Swatching Skin Tones

I had some of this green left over in my palette, so added some Opera Pink to it to create a couple of really nice skin tones (ideal for Scottish and Irish skin tones). Then I experimented with mixing Natural Sienna and Opera Pink together for a similar skin tone.

My standard skin tone mix is Opera Pink, Cobalt Turquoise Light, and Hansa Yellow Light. But using the Natural Sienna instead of HYL takes away some of the brightness and added a more organic earthiness to this shade skin tone.