Pen, Ink and Watercolor Wash Sketching.

Tips for postcard size sketches using photo references for drawing people.

Postcard Sketches: Pretend the widescreen photo is your plein air view. Choose a small area with a focal point and sketch your own composition in the postcard sized drawing area provided on the Tip Sheet. Use pens, markers, or pencils when working on printer paper. For your second sketch, work on drawing paper. Use pens, inks, new water brushes, or watercolors for wet media washes. Choose a different focal point and draw a thumbnail sketch for your second composition in the small drawing space. Then, using drawing paper, try various techniques for shapes, lines, and tones in a larger, 6” x 4” postcard size sketch.

Practice Tip Sheet for Drawing People

Because people are often in motion, many artists find it difficult to add them to their landscapes. Luckily, figures are stationary in photographs, so here is an opportunity to practice drawing some people in the spaces below each figure. Draw them simply, with just a few strokes of the pen or brush, and then repeat this technique when you put the figures in your sketches or paintings. It’s a sunny day, so remember to add the shadows at the feet of the people you are drawing. These Drawing People Tip Sheets can be printed on any computer printer using either a good quality multipurpose paper or drawing paper that has been cut to 8.5” x 11” to fit the printer. When making sketches on the printed sheets, you can use the printed photo for reference. Alternatively, when viewing the PDF file in Acrobat Reader, you can sketch from the computer screen and use the magnifying glass on the toolbar to zoom into the photo and discover the smallest details. This is an especially helpful tool if you have chosen a distant figure as the focal point of your sketch.

At rigt is a pen and ink drawing with a watercolor wash painted at home from photographs that were taken at the beach and are included for your reference in these Drawing People Tip Sheets. 7.5” x 5.5”, Platinum Carbon Black waterproof ink for lines, Winsor Newton watercolor wash for tints, Strathmore Series 500, Aquarius II watercolor paper.