Group urban sketch at the event
Day Ninety-Five of Sketching People
Day 95 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. Today was the monthly Winter Sun event in Tavira which attracts quite a crowd, especially on days like today when it was 22c, with a warm breeze.
A Place to Sit and Watch
As well as food and craft stalls and activities for kids, there’s DJ’s and a band playing at these monthly events. Lot’s of people were sitting on the grass, but there were also a few stacks of palettes to sit on. Luckily I found a few spare areas on the palettes to sit and sketch, but I was kicking myself for not bringing my little fold-away stool. This would have been good because then I wouldn’t be restricted on where I could position myself to paint people.
Urban Sketching a Group of Girls
The first group I sketched were sitting on the floor in front of me. I sketched them in grey ink and then added watercolour.
I usually favour black ink, and I sketched some people earlier in the week at the Tavira Plaza, in grey ink, and I wasn’t too enamoured with the results. But at the moment my EF Twisbi pen is the one with grey ink in it, and I really like this extra fine nib to sketch with, so I keep grabbing it for my initial sketches.
Urban Sketching a Composed Group Scene
I was sitting down to begin this sketch, but then I ran out of people to sketch so ended up moving around and standing at the end of a crowd to sketch some more people. I composed this sketch out of individual people, and compiled them into this group sketch.
I much prefer sketching people that have something that intrigues me about them – this could be their clothing or hair, or their posture, or the creases and tonal shading in their clothes. So my group sketches tend to be make up of individuals that weren’t standing next to each other.
I started this sketch with the guy in the ventilated green shirt, and added the figures to the right, and then add the figures to his left. I didn’t plan him very well and I cut his feet off, and that meant everyone got the same treatment, except on short person who I could fit her all in. I was really pleased how well this sketch turned out. For each new person I sketched, I did wonder if I was going to ruin the sketch, but it all worked out well.
The Travelling Tailor
The best dressed guy at the event today was the travelling Tailor, so I stood behind his little stall and did a quick sketch of him. It didn’t turn out that well because he was a bit of a social butterfly and chatting to customers and people stopping by to say hello. But I like the loose lines of the sewing machine and basket.
My Urban Sketching Kit
I recently bought a A6 Hahnemühle 100% cotton watercolour book, and for some reason I took all the pages out of it, so I could use them individually. I used some of the pages to make an A5 sample paper book of cotton and non-cotton paper to see how the watercolour reacts differently. The rest of the pages have just been sitting loosely on my desk.
Today I had the bright idea of using the A6 cover as an easel. One side to hold the paper and the other side to hold my watercolour palette, water container, and paper towel for wiping my brush. It worked really well and I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before. The cover is extremely sturdy, and was excellent for working on.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever sketched on loose paper. For these type of urban sketching events I’d usually take my A5 and A6 sketchbooks out with me. I did like sketching on the double page spread, and am wondering if there’s a long sketchbook I could buy that’d allow me to sketch these group scenes so that there’s no seam in the middle of the sketch.
I took a good assortment of pens with me today, but I only used my Twisbi with the grey ink, and my black ink Twisbi didn’t get a look in. I didn’t use my pencil or Uni-ball eye, but I did use a couple of the grey Tombow brush pens.
I’ve been using this blog to start tracking what I take out with me for each urban sketching out, so that I can pair my kit down to essential when I attend the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toulouse in July. I want to make sure I don’t take too many art materials with me, but I also don’t want to be left short. I’ve never really paid attention to what I take and what I omit in my urban sketching kit, so this is a valuable exercise to focus on this year.
