Travel Sketching: People

During my recent trip to the east coast of the U.S., I practiced, among other things, fast sketching of people in motion.

I used a china marker on a Strathmore tan-toned 9 x 12 sketchbook.

I practiced some of the lessons I have encountered in the wonderful book called FORCE:  Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators by Michael Mattesi.   I can't recommend it enough.

You'll see this is all very scribbly and I am still learning.  But I love the way these lessons push me to look at parts of bodies and how the fit together, move together, and how various forces push into each other.

These first two are among several pages I did sitting in a Barnes and Noble.  Great place to draw people.

This next page is all selfies--which I did looking into a full-length mirror in a hotel room.  THat is harder than it looks.  But it was fun to position myself in different odd stances and try to draw them, thinking about force and balance.

The next two I drew before and during a church service.  Again, people in interesting positions talking to each other, twisting and shifting angles, but mostly stationary.

This last page I did during the church service.  I had the fun of combining my sketches of people in the pews with my notes from and thoughts about the sermon.

This last page I'm including for fun. During one of the World Series games that week, I sketched pages of baseball players.  On one hand, hard, because the move a lot.  On the other hand, not so hard if I employed patience and waited for the repeated positions.  Pitchers have the same moves.  Batters do to. 

The hardest part was having to rely on the television cameras to repeat angles of the same players.  When you can't control the gaze, it's a lot harder.

I look forward to a lot more practice with the principles in this book!