by Róisín Curé in Galway
I discovered urban sketching in Mauritius in 2012. Looking at those drawings you could be forgiven for thinking there had been a bomb scare just before every sketch I made, as most of them are deserted. I regret this heartily now - all those Mauritians, well-known for their ethnic diversity, in saris, galabeyas, hijabs, shirts and swimwear that I missed. I visited again and sketched as many people as I could, but that first time I just didn't know where to start. It's a different matter now and I always get excited when I get a chance to put people in action into a sketch.
You may already know a few tricks which make this easier, such as making a whole figure from the parts of many, if they've passed before you have had a chance to finish them, or looking for people doing a repetitive task so that you'll get many chances to get the pose right. Of course, if you are presented with an opportunity on a regular basis to draw someone in action, so much the better. Maybe you're in a band, or work in a restaurant, or visit the same one regularly. There are a few situations that I find myself in on a more or less regular basis. For example, I'm getting quite practiced at drawing children dragging Optimist sailing dinghies down a slip. And with a bit more practice and a few more empty front seats, I'll get the hang of sketching bus drivers on a long journey. But my favourite situation where I get to draw people in motion is when I take my son to the barber. Drawing barbers at work is a challenging middle ground between drawing a person making a repeated gesture, and drawing someone who's going to disappear at any moment. They move around the client's head continually, so you'll never get them for more than a few seconds, but they will return.
(I did enjoy drawing the barber's chair, but without people a sketch loses its heartbeat, so to speak.)
Each time I went to the barbers, I had a wait of between half an hour and an hour. I knew it was a great place to sketch, but those barbers with their flashing scissors were tricky. Here's the first sketch I made.
I used whatever colours I could see. I tried to draw everything. I made all kinds of errors in my attempts to capture those people in motion. It was hard.
I tried again the next time:
More mistakes - of observation, and also at that point I hadn't learned that mixing a brush pen (thick line) with a fine-nibbed fountain pen (very thin line) doesn't always work. But I put in bits of chopped-off hair, which I like.
A new barber joined, and I liked his neat figure and Paul Weller haircut (that's him on the far left). That didn't make drawing him any easier. I tried to concentrate and put everyone possible in. You can see how there are far fewer re-drawn lines in the seated figures...but I was determined to lick this people-in-motion thing, and I kept trying.
The new barber is there on the right again. The lady barber who used to cut my son's hair was always so pleased when I showed her my sketches. She is a very tiny lady from Brazil. She may have liked them, but I was still falling short of the mark.
I tried to be more free-styling, drawing my son like a little pasha, with two sets of flying scissors hovering over his head. I love this sketch because it captures a boyishness of my son that is rapidly disappearing. But while drawing in pencil is beautiful and sensitive, it suits my nature to throw down an unambiguous line in ink.
A new year, and a new barbershop. Same small town, but down the road, and inspired by an exceptionally sharp haircut on my daughter's boyfriend. Now I'm finding something has changed in my sketching. I have gone to a new level of confidence with my line. My line was always somewhat confident, but now I can draw a line without hesitation. That doesn't mean it's right - but I'm not bothered about getting it wrong, which frees me so much that it generally results in a line that's more right than wrong. Right-ish, which is fine by me. I've stopped using the fine-nibbed fountain pen and use a thicker one, which I suspect helps.
But there are a few new things that are helping me sketch people in motion.
I hope you have enjoyed this Barbershop Quartet (in seven parts), and if you get one useful idea for sketching people in motion then I'll be very happy...
I discovered urban sketching in Mauritius in 2012. Looking at those drawings you could be forgiven for thinking there had been a bomb scare just before every sketch I made, as most of them are deserted. I regret this heartily now - all those Mauritians, well-known for their ethnic diversity, in saris, galabeyas, hijabs, shirts and swimwear that I missed. I visited again and sketched as many people as I could, but that first time I just didn't know where to start. It's a different matter now and I always get excited when I get a chance to put people in action into a sketch.
You may already know a few tricks which make this easier, such as making a whole figure from the parts of many, if they've passed before you have had a chance to finish them, or looking for people doing a repetitive task so that you'll get many chances to get the pose right. Of course, if you are presented with an opportunity on a regular basis to draw someone in action, so much the better. Maybe you're in a band, or work in a restaurant, or visit the same one regularly. There are a few situations that I find myself in on a more or less regular basis. For example, I'm getting quite practiced at drawing children dragging Optimist sailing dinghies down a slip. And with a bit more practice and a few more empty front seats, I'll get the hang of sketching bus drivers on a long journey. But my favourite situation where I get to draw people in motion is when I take my son to the barber. Drawing barbers at work is a challenging middle ground between drawing a person making a repeated gesture, and drawing someone who's going to disappear at any moment. They move around the client's head continually, so you'll never get them for more than a few seconds, but they will return.
(I did enjoy drawing the barber's chair, but without people a sketch loses its heartbeat, so to speak.)
Each time I went to the barbers, I had a wait of between half an hour and an hour. I knew it was a great place to sketch, but those barbers with their flashing scissors were tricky. Here's the first sketch I made.
I used whatever colours I could see. I tried to draw everything. I made all kinds of errors in my attempts to capture those people in motion. It was hard.
I tried again the next time:
More mistakes - of observation, and also at that point I hadn't learned that mixing a brush pen (thick line) with a fine-nibbed fountain pen (very thin line) doesn't always work. But I put in bits of chopped-off hair, which I like.
A new barber joined, and I liked his neat figure and Paul Weller haircut (that's him on the far left). That didn't make drawing him any easier. I tried to concentrate and put everyone possible in. You can see how there are far fewer re-drawn lines in the seated figures...but I was determined to lick this people-in-motion thing, and I kept trying.
The new barber is there on the right again. The lady barber who used to cut my son's hair was always so pleased when I showed her my sketches. She is a very tiny lady from Brazil. She may have liked them, but I was still falling short of the mark.
I tried to be more free-styling, drawing my son like a little pasha, with two sets of flying scissors hovering over his head. I love this sketch because it captures a boyishness of my son that is rapidly disappearing. But while drawing in pencil is beautiful and sensitive, it suits my nature to throw down an unambiguous line in ink.
But there are a few new things that are helping me sketch people in motion.
- I keep to a limited palette, which means I don't have to worry about cleaning my brush or choosing colours, both of which might break the concentration, or cause me to miss the moment my subject takes up his or her pose again.
- I use a water brush, which keeps the whole thing flowing - literally.
- The limited palette means people's pink ears stand out (I have a huge thing for pink ears...in an artistic sense, you understand).
- I've learned that you MUST be patient and wait for your subject to take their pose again - and hope it's not time for their break.
- I've learned that you have to concentrate hard, and try to be calm.
I hope you have enjoyed this Barbershop Quartet (in seven parts), and if you get one useful idea for sketching people in motion then I'll be very happy...
