Rhoda’s Sketching Blog

English translation is “Waiting room”. Whether you are waiting to see a doctor, to catch a flight or open a bank account, you can use this “down time” to advantage when you have your sketching kit handy.

Working with a combination of Micron 08 pen and some aquarelle colored pencils I was able to capture some of the folks waiting in the bank for their number to be called. My first attempt sketching the fellow with his foot crossed over his other knee was in green pencil. I made him look like he was almost completely reclining. I could fix that with a pen drawing, and used my water brush on some of he original pencil work to create the effect of a shadow behind him.

With a few minutes to wait for a bus from Queretero back home to San Miguel, I used the Micron pen to capture a variety of people. I began with the whole figure at the lower right, and when I added the guy on the left, I realized that my perspective and visual logic were completely messed up. No problem….I now had permission to just fill page with people, without trying to make it into a scene.

You can practice sketching people “in the wild”, working quickly with just one color of pencil. No way to be sure that your subject will sit still, so you need to work fast! Get the biggest, darkest shapes and shadows in first. Then add smaller bits or lines as needed.

Decide if you want your people to be the only item, or the most important elements. You might want to sketch a scene wheree the people are minor characters. Even small figures can help convey the feeling or atmosphere of a sketch.