Sketching at the Beach

Sketching live people, out and about doing their thing, has been a challenge I've generally shied from. Just too hard. My friend Ethna helped me rethink this a few months back when she told me she really enjoyed the challenge of capturing people in action quickly. It made me think if capturing a perfectly still building in 45 mins felt satisfying, how satisfying would it be to get a likeness of someone in 5 - 10 mins?  But then on seeing her lovely sketches from cafes and the streets my nerve was gone again.

 

Then 2 weeks ago, Cesar aka Eclectic Box, an urban sketcher from Barcelona, launched the wonderful blog 'Portraits without Mercy'. A collaborative blog of posts by sketchers of sketchers, but with portraits "that voluntarily or not show a complete lack of kindness or affection towards the portrayed subject" (including self portraits). Very funny and very inspiring. 

 

A sense of humour and ability to laugh at oneself is I'm guessing a strong prerequisite as subjects can return the complement of an unflattering portrait, with a responding post of the artist on the same blog.  Ultimately though, the recognition that a likeness does not have to be pretty or attractive to have value or expression is great to see. The concept is liberating in itself. That someone has created a blog for just that purpose is fabulous. So on the beach yesterday, I gave away the idea of getting things just right and being hesitant, and instead just enjoyed the process.

More lessons with Liz Steel - context and composition.

Having earlier touched on some fundamental drawing lessons for buildings, Weeks 6 and 7 of Liz Steel's Urban Sketching course was focussed on context and composition.

The aim of week 6 was creating life around an object (often a building). Placing the main object into context. This assists with the concept of creating a story for urban sketching. It's also an area I tend to neglect. Partly because I'm chicken.

Liz had us warm up in the studio with sketching from photos of models from art reference books.

 

These two faces were finished later from black and white photos.

We also drew trees and cars. Palms, Pines and Gums are the trees I associate the most with Sydney. My greens need a bit more oomph here - a bit more summer to them.  

Once finished in the studio, we were then off to Manly Wharf where we gathered at the traffic lights. Here we sketched people as they waited in the rain for the lights to change. Sketching people within a such a short time frame is all very new to me. I learnt quite a lot and know that I would have continued to bypass sketching people if it weren't part of this course. Having the direction of an accomplished sketcher who is encouraging and enthusiastic made a huge difference.

 

 

Week 7 was about Composition. Balancing a blend of text, headings and images around the page to again help tell a story about the location and also communicate the feeling and atmostphere of the moment.




My studio cup and saucer sketch.. without my unbalanced composition!

 

Liz challenged with randomly selected layouts. We had to sketch a cup and saucer onto the page in the assigned area and then build a balanced composition around it. My composition for this one was messy when I added the words. I painted it later at home, once I regained some confidence! Filling in text to balance composition with an image, whilst maintaing a flow of seemingly effortless prose  is due for a bit of development.

 

It came together a bit better when we then set out to sketch at one of my favourite cafes in Manly, Foundry Fiftythree: huge tables allowing plenty of room to sketch, unique items decorating the walls, cool teapots, good coffee and good food.

Sadly, we're nearing the end of our course with Liz. Just one more class and then we will be left to our own devices. Fortunately, Liz has taught us plenty, she shares a great deal of her ideas online and she is considering teaching more courses. If you'd like to read more about her classes Liz shares her ideas here, and you can also find reviews of Liz's course on class mate Suzi Poland's blog.