Quick Sketches

I thought it might be fun to share some images from my current sketchbook.  After all, when I've got a couple minutes to share, what do I do?  A quick sketch...or twenty of them. 

An interesting thing to note is that pretty much all of these figures were drawn not by looking at the actual figures, but by watching their reflections on a shiny glass wall.  My favorite from this spread? 

I like how the two figures complete each other. 

If people sitting around isn't enough challenge, you can always find some people who are bowling and try to draw them.  Anyone up for some bowling?  I need more art practice! 

Capturing the actual moment of the ball leaving their fingertips is a true challenge for me...but the reactions are more fun anyway! 

Something tells me that wasn't a strike.  In fact, I don't think he knows what it was.

I suspect that wasn't a strike either. 

Oh, well.  Bowling's not about the score anyway.  It's about all the chit-chat and time with family and friends while you are waiting your turn. 

If you don't have any people around, pukekos are acceptable substitutes.  In fact, when they are in a hurry, they can move a lot faster than people bowling.

But if you tire of pukekos, you can always find people online.  Pose Maniacs has this handy animated feature that gives you a still image of a posing figure and thirty seconds to draw it before the figure vanishes.  I suspect it's mostly for artists working with computer games because some of the poses are ones you would never see in real-life unless you were watching a contortionist and the animated models are more in the style of comic book figures like Cat Woman and The Hulk than in the style of "human being next door."   Even with that warning, it's still excellent practice and a website I pop onto every now and then.

This page looks a bit chaotic because I was conserving paper.  There are three different layers of figures on there...a bit like one of those paintings where you strip off the top layer of paint to discover a completely different picture hidden away.  Blue figures, red figures, and sick yellow-green figures.  Usually I just use scrap paper instead of my sketchbook...especially still-clean bits of butcher block paper from the grocery store.

Back to show and tell.  Pose Maniacs is fun...but real people are more fun.  Cross-walks are a nice challenge.  People tend to stand there just long enough for you to sketch them...but not long enough for you to relax and take your time.  

Of course that doesn't mean they stay still while they wait for the little red figure to change to a green walking one.  

If you find a sidewalk in constant motion, you can keep yourself entertained for hours.

 

Watching people watch for their friends is fun.

Watching people decide where to eat is fun.

But the drawing people is even more fun.  I'll leave you with my favorite sidewalk sketch from this past week:  an old-fashioned-looking man in a dapper suit looking in a bakery window.  He stood looking at the Chinese moon cakes for the longest time.

I never did see if he went in to buy some. 

LINKS:
http://www.posemaniacs.com/thirtysecond