Add Some Life to the Drawing

One of the most rewarding things about Urban Sketching and the USk community is the culture of sharing, critiquing, teaching and learning that happens here.

If you look at my sketches, you'll notice that the majority of what I draw is Architecture.  I draw it more than anything else simply because I really enjoy it.  I'm also more familiar with architectural forms because this is what I got a degree in.  I guess you could say it's my go to subject.

It makes sense too, right?  You can hardly escape drawing architecture in an "urban sketch."  If you are sketching people in a coffee shop for example, you're most likely going to draw the coffee shop you are in to give some context.  Or if you are walking around on the street and decided to sketch oh I don't know, a street festival that happens to be going on, it's going to be really hard not to include some of the architecture that's all around you.

So I sketch Architecture.  But a huge part of urban sketching is capturing a sense of life in a given sketch. Who is there?  How many are there?  What are they doing?  How are they using the space?  Are they having a good time?  Not only does including people bring your sketch to life, but it also add's a real nice sense of scale and proportion.

In theory, I know all about these things and how to use them, but actually including them in my sketches has been a different story.  Figure drawing is difficult for me, but I've been challenged and inspired by other sketchers to add more "life" to my sketches.

I took the advice and really liked how this last sketch of mine turned out.