Today we announce a new feature to the USk Chicago blog--a weekly urban
sketching "Tips & Tricks" post. Each Tuesday a new sketching
tip will be shared. Tips will span a range of topics and will aim to give
you a new skill to work on during that week. Before you know it you will
have a new arsenal of sketching ideas, tips and tricks to use on sketching
outings and to refer back to, all in one place, on our blog. Blog posts
will also be posted to our Pinterest board "Tips and Tricks," so if
you want, you can share these and other pins with your own followers. If
there is something you would like to see as a post, please add your suggestion
in the comments below.
Topic: How to include people in your urban sketches
The question often comes up about how to draw people. Drawing people can require years of anatomy study and practice to get the proper proportions. For those of you who do not have that kind of time, here are a few of my favorite tricks for adding people and a human element to your urban sketches. First let us review why you would want to add people in the first place. If you still have questions, pose your question in the comments section below. Thank you.
5 Reasons To Add People To Your Urban Sketch:
1. To give scale (size relationships) to your environment
2. To add a human element to your environment
3. To observe how people live, work or play
4. To capture movement and gesture
5. The "unintentional portrait" happens when a person is so engrossed in whatever they are doing that they will stay in position for a long period of time and present you with the perfect model from which you make your detailed sketch.
5. The "unintentional portrait" happens when a person is so engrossed in whatever they are doing that they will stay in position for a long period of time and present you with the perfect model from which you make your detailed sketch.
5 Types of People
Sketches in Urban Sketching:
The Stick Figure Silhouette: Stick figures thickened up to
look like clothes. Perfect for subjects that are further away and the people
are not the main focus.
Block People - Basic: The human form made up of blocks
and circles. No facial details needed and the pose contributes to the scene.
Block People - Detailed: The human form made up of
blocks and circles, but more detail is added such as clothes, hair, and the
suggestion of faces.
The Close-up Portrait Study: A more time-intensive study of
the subject focusing on anatomy, shading, details, clothing and environment.
Careful observation and attention to small details are important here. Shading
can come in many forms such as watercolor, hatching, markers or pencil.
Hi Wes. This is a wonderful post. Thank you so much for writing it and sharing your knowledge.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, really we'll done Wes.
ReplyDeleteHey thank you Lisa and Mark for checking out the blog. It is amazing to me that so many people resonate with this topic and that there had to be a better way to draw people than taking years and years of life drawing classes. I went through my sketches and the article pretty much wrote itself. I am glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteExcellent, concise and very helpful Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you T Anderson. I'm sorry that it took me so long to reply to your message--I don't have this set up for message alerts--but I am pleased that you liked the post. Let me know which people style you end up trying out (unless of course you already have a style that you have been comfortable with). Either way, I'm glad you checked out our blog.
DeleteWhat a great post. Perfect timing!
ReplyDeleteThank you @mysteriousmannequin. It has been a very popular post for a long time. Glad you got to see it.
Delete