How To Clone Your Original Sketches

Interview with Kordt Larsen, WS 10: Photographing & Promoting Your Sketches
By Wes Douglas

Have you ever been sketching on location when someone admires your work so much that you feel compelled to give them the sketch? Or how many times have you been to a party, or family get together, and want to show your latest sketches but didn’t think to bring the sketchbook with you? 

Well, before you tear out the sketch and hand it over, or pat your pockets in a vain effort to show the sketch that you don’t have, you will learn the skills and tools to easily capture your sketch with your phone. Capture it and make adjustments before you make someone’s day a little brighter. With this workshop, you will be able to call up your sketches faster and more impressively on your smart phone. 

Here is one workshop that will show you one of the most valuable skills you really need to know.

I asked Kordt Larsen about his workshop, "Photographing and Promoting Your Sketches" (WS 10). “I help a lot of creatives who are looking for tips on how to show off their work and advance their skills. I am taking these same tools to share with urban sketchers because I think knowing how to create better looking images of your sketches is a universal skill that everyone wants.”

Does it matter what kind of phone that I have? "All of these tools and apps that I am sharing with students will work across different platforms. I use an iPhone, but bring whatever phone you have, or tablet device, and I will work with you in this workshop."

Union Station Group Photo (before adjustments):

Union Station Group Photo (after adjustments):

Learn how to capture, how to adjust, and how to share your sketches with your urban sketching brothers and sisters. Urban sketching is a social sketching group and this workshop will give you hands-on training on getting your sketches ready for sharing online and on your mobile devices. The tools are free or inexpensive and will allow you to make adjustments while you are still on location. And the best way to protect and archive your original sketches is to have digital versions of them. Make your sketch images look as good online as they do in your sketchbooks. 

Bring your sketchbooks with your smart phone and Kordt will show you how you can make both work for you better and more easily. You get to work directly on your sketches from the Sketch Seminar and be sharing with the Urban Sketchers group before your next workshop. You can see how Kordt fixed one of my sketches (left).

Kordt says, “I really hope that the simple tips and tricks I’m sharing will increase the number of great sketches that we see on in the Urban Sketchers Chicago group like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.”

Kordt, how should people sign up for your workshop? “Good question and an important one. First, go to the website https://chicagosketchseminar.wordpress.com and click on the “registration” tab, then click on the “BOOKWHEN” type, it will take you to the list of workshops. My workshop is WS 10 on Saturday afternoon from 2:30pm to 5:30pm and Sunday morning 10:00am to 1:00pm.”

Best Practices for Sketching People in Public (and not getting caught)

I am often asked how I am able to sketch people in public without getting people angry or upset. After years of sketching people at airports, on commuter trains and even while in waiting rooms, here is what has worked best for me. Perhaps one of these will work for you. A special thank you to fellow urban sketchers Ted Gordon, Angie (Haugh) Novak and Emily White for their experiences and shared tips.

1.    Sketch first, ask later. In my experience, when you first ask for permission to sketch a person, it may be met with initial resistance, or it will effect the pose you were originally attracted to. Besides, if you already have a sketch started and the person asks what you are doing, having a concrete example can work better than explaining what you are planning to do.

2.    Creative Disguising. Normally accepted disguises, such as hats and sunglasses work well to cover your gaze. The idea is to blend in, not stand out and attract attention so sunglasses in a dark restaurant or tavern might cause suspicion.

3. Sketch in a smaller book is a great way to disguise that you are drawing.

4.    Don’t Be A Bobble-head. Pick a more crowded location. If you are the only other person in the room, anything you do will be noticeable. Cartoon of head movements.

5.    Leverage reflections at night. If someone looks back at you, move your head side to side as if trying to look past them. Cartoon of subject upset, on window is warning “Caution: objects in reflection are closer than they appear.”

6.    Sketch from inside your car. Lots of people eat or have phone calls inside their car. Sad cartoon of lowly artist sketching from behind steering wheel.

7.    Sketch from an upper level, or from the side, out of their line of sight. Sketching from below is still within their peripheral.

8.    Capture first in pencil to block out the basic posture and position. Add color or shading later if you have time. For moving subjects, go for your impressions of their movements such as dancers or skateboarders at the park. 

9.    Pick subjects who are fully engrossed in their activity. Examples might include commuters on their electronic devices, a chef at work behind a viewing window, or an athlete during a sporting event.

10. Invite a friend to lunch or coffee and chat while sketching over their shoulder. I used this technique when I got together with Liz Steel while we planned out our WGN-TV interview while sitting at a coffee shop. She, of course, did the same and we sketched in opposite directions.

In the event that you do get "caught" and the subject confronts you, simply show them your sketch and allow them to look at it. Most of the time, people will be relieved that you were not taking photos and sketches are more flattering than photographs. Feel free to start a conversation with the person if the opportunity presents itself.

I'd love to hear which one works best for you and your stories of how it turned out in the comments below.