Urban Sketching on the Train: Sketchbook vs. my Train Ticket

Feature Image: Tonal Sketches on Train Tickets

When you spend a lot of time traveling on public transport, it’s easy to get a bit jaded about sketching the same train interior again and again. So on a recent train trip to visit Loulé for an urban sketching meet-up I decided to mix it up. I did a couple of sketches in my usual style in my A6 Hahnemühle sketchbook, and then did a couple of tonal sketches on my train ticket.

See how I approached each pairing.

Pen and Watercolour in my Sketchbook

This paper is a decent weight so I was able to add watercolour and use a Tombow brush pen. I used the same brown shade I used on my Loulé Market urban sketches. In the sketch on the right I used it to depict the row of windows, and in the left-hand sketch I used it to fill in the background.

watercolour urban sketch of man looking out a window

watercolour urban sketch of man listening to headphones

Even though I used this brush pen colour differently in each image, it features prominently enough to tie the two together. I used Indigo Blue watercolour (one of my faves) as a complimentary colour in both sketches, and this gives a sense of harmony.

Pen and Brush Pen on my Train Ticket

This train ticket paper is thin and quite shiny, so I added restated lines and shading with a Tombow brush pen to my ink sketches.

I limited my pen strokes and the amount of detail, and kept the focus on strong contour lines to create impactful sketches.

Using my tickets was a useful exercise because it helped me to simplify my sketches. This is something I’m always aiming to do in my urban sketches, but forget to do because I get distracted by the colour and all the details.

Sketching on Other Objects

I’ve seen a few urban sketchers using disposable coffee cups to sketch people in the cafe, and other using brown paper bags to capture local scenes. So in the future, I’m going to grab more opportunities to recycle paper and cardboard by sketching on it.