I’m an Urban Sketcher…
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Category Archives: faces
Turn the other cheek
Left and right profiles of the same model skull, sketched on two consecutive evenings using a thick white pen for initial lines, then dilute grey ink to add form/shadows, and water-colour for background. This skull’s been a favourite and familiar subject since I started … Continue reading
Posted in death, faces, Lexington grey, monochrome, skulls, white pen
Tagged Lexington grey, memento mori, memento vivere, model skull, Sakura white pen, shade and form, sketch of skull, The Clash, white pen sketch
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Yet more…
Another seven selfies, in pen, pencil and brush-pen, with the usual self-portrait expressions (aloof, bored, angry, vacant, odd). All done fairly fast as it was late, and sleep beckoned… Both friends and family say there’s little resemblance to me in any of … Continue reading
The quick(ish) and the dead(very)
Two double-page spreads from yesterday’s USk Bristol/South West sketchcrawl at Bristol Museum (15 sketchers, our best turn out yet!). Here are passengers at Bath railway station, a recreation of the Dignitas flat and the reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian face (both … Continue reading
Posted in Bristol, brush pen, cafe, death, faces, figures, museum, people watching, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Bristol Museum, brush pen sketches, David Bowie, Dignitas, museum sketching, sketch of hippo, sketch of people in cafe, sketch of skull, urban sketching, USk Bristol/South West
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Selfies #3
More brown ink brush-pen selfies. My face has gone through a catastrophic Christmas slump by the last sketch! Kuretake #8 and #40 filled with the usual 3 inks, Lexington grey water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 20/30 mins each
Fourty-eight fast faces
First twenty-nine drivers, sketched from the passenger seat while overtaking on the motorway. Their faces were only glimpsed in passing, so I had to quickly memorise the key lines, but they were always in full profile which helped simplify things! … Continue reading
Posted in Bath, brush pen, cars, collections, faces, ink brush, journeys, Lexington grey, people, street scene, urban, urban sketching, vehicles
Tagged Bath sketches, brush-pen sketching, collections of faces, fast sketches of faces, ink brush sketching, Kuretake #40 brush pen, Motörhead, sketches from a car, sketching faces with brush-pen, urban sketching
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Eye-lines
Mid-winter tired eyes sketched on four consecutive evenings before going to bed. I think they improved, with the last one being the best? I definitely became more familiar with the key shapes and lines, ‘zooming in’ on the subject, making accuracy and … Continue reading
Oxford faces
I’ll follow Stuart’s advice and post something cheerier and less morbid (mostly). So here’s a range of faces seen on a day trip to Oxford, most from the wonderful Ashmolean Museum, which I’ve posted about before. They span the whole history of portraiture, … Continue reading
Posted in body, brush pen, faces, grisaille, ink brush, Lexington grey, monochrome, museum, Oxford, people watching, sculpture, urban, urban sketching
Tagged Ashmolean museum, Fayum mummy portrait, Max Greger, museum sketching, sketch of man asleep on train, sketching in Oxford, train sketching, urban sketching
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More selfies
Another batch of late night selfies, including some deliberate attempts to avoid the usual self-portrait surly stare; I’m not sure that they’re any less alarming! All but one were done with my new favourite sketching tool, Kuretake brush-pens, either number 8 (plastic … Continue reading
Homework…
I rarely sketch from photos, but the wonderfully encyclopaedic People of the Twenty-First Century by Hans Eijkelboom is a treasure trove of reference images for the urban sketcher. It’s a beautiful catalogue of real people going about their lives, and copying the pictures … Continue reading
Posted in faces, figures, Lexington grey, line drawing, monochrome, people, sequential, technique, urban sketching
Tagged 'People of the Twenty First Century', Hans Eijkelboom, ink brush sketching, Malcolm Mclaren, practising urban sketching, sketching from photos, sketching people, sketching urban figures, urban sketching
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Oxford Museums #2
After graveyards and guns I’ll lighten the mood with some cheerier items from the Ashmolean, “the oldest public museum in Britain, and the first purpose-built public museum in the world”, which grew out Tradescant’s Ark, a C17th ‘cabinet of curiosity’. First there’s a … Continue reading
Mostly drawing 