Urban Sketch of a Lady at a Cafe

Day Sixty-Six of Sketching People

Continuing with day 66 of my #Kick365 sketching challenge to draw people in ink and watercolour. An urban sketch outing to the Tavira Plaza to sketch people.

Urban Sketching at Tavira Plaza

There’s a couple of cafes and the food hall at the Tavira Plaza, so plenty of opportunities to sketch people sitting in one location for a while.

I went to the larger cafe first and did a couple of sketches. The first sketch didn’t have a very good composition, so I added foliage and a third person to the scene. Not sure it works still, but at least it had a little more interest in the scene. The trouble with this cafe is the surrounding area isn’t very interesting.

I created a sense of depth with this third figure and the foliage, by using desaturated colours, whereas the two guys in the front of the scene were painted with more saturated colours.

Urban Sketch with V-Shaped Composition

In this second sketch, these two guys were actually sitting at opposite ends of the cafe, and I brought them together in this sketch to make a more interesting composition. I put a bit more thought into this second sketch, I wanted to use a V-shaped composition, but it didn’t quite work. It needed the guys hands to be lower down so the shape of the V was more clear and evident. But at least I had an idea of what I wanted to achieve, even though I didn’t quite get the impact I was looking for.

Urban Sketch with Tonal Shading

As I was walking towards the other cafe to see if there were sketch-able people there, I saw this family of four sitting on a bench. I liked that all four of them (mum, dad, and two teenage kids) had grey sweat pants and sweatshirts on, and I though it would make an interesting scene to sketch, but they left too quickly and I only got to sketch two of them.

There wasn’t much in the background worth sketching so I had a spot colour cloud behind this tonal sketch, and I like this style of composition. The background colour adds an element of interest to an otherwise generic sketch. This peachy orange background is a mix of Opera Pink and Hansa Yellow Medium, and I like the texture and blooms this combination creates.

Urban Sketch of Lady at the Cafe

In the second cafe there was a very vocal northern European, and I just had to sketch her because she looked such a character. I sketched from behind my bag to get an extra layer of incognito! While I was sketching, a couple of people from a neighbouring table looked over my shoulder, and gave me a thumbs up!

These sketches are bordering on caricature. This isn’t the intention, but the way I sketch is to look for a dominant feature or eye-catching element to the subject, and then I end up accentuating it. In this last sketch it was the voluminous lower face, full cheeks, and chin. I like to exaggerate specific elements as a way to ensure the sketches I create have character to them.

I wanted to create an interesting background, so used the lime green paint I created, and then dabbed some areas off with the paper towel. I love this addition of texture on a background with a single colour. It adds interest, without overwhelming the main subject of the sketch.

Skin Tone Colour Palette

I’m getting more confident with my skin tone shading. I’m not blending all of the layers, and like the effect of hard lines and distinct lighter areas.

My go-to skin tone for caucasian people is Opera Pink and Hansa Yellow Light or Medium. For the darker shadow areas, I mix that with my May Green/Spring Green mix that I made out of Hansa Yellow Medium and Cobalt Turquoise Light. Opera Pink has a nice granulation to it, which gives the skin tone an interesting texture that isn’t too in-your-face.