How to Sketch Humans

Turn your sketches into more detailed drawings when you return to your home or studio.

The ability to sketch is a skill that artists practice not just to improve their drawing abilities but to capture scenes when they are out and about. Sketches are quickly and roughly drawn---they are not meant to be perfect drawings. Instead, sketches help the artist to draw a scene, person or other object so that she can complete a more detailed drawing later. The good thing about sketching people and other objects is that there are no set rules---over time you will develop your own style of sketching. As an artist, you should make it a rule of thumb to keep a notepad and pencil with you at all times, in case you find someone you would like to sketch.

Things You'll Need

• Drawing pad
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Visit a place where people tend to linger, such as a library, coffee shop, outdoor café or other similar location. In order to sketch someone, you must first find someone to sketch. These places tend to attract people who will sit for a period of time of sufficient duration to allow you to draw them.

2. Squint your eyes in order to see simple shapes and values. Sketches are not masterpieces. They should include basic details only. Squinting will help you focus on the main shapes of the person. Draw each shape carefully on the paper, starting with the body shape, the head, the hair, the arms and any other obvious shapes you notice. Sketching is essentially translating what you see onto paper---there are no set rules.

3. Draw quickly to get a full sketch done before the person moves. People don't tend to stay in the same place for long. Also, a subject will be moving his body---perhaps his hands, if he is eating or drinking---so choose one position and continue drawing when he resumes that position.

4. Avoid drawing the features of the person's face or feet---these details are too great to be included in a rough sketch of a person. If you were drawing a finished product, the face would be an area of high concentration and great detail. But that is not the case in a sketch.

5. Draw everything in proportion by drawing select items in the background, such as a chair or a table. Drawing these simple background items will help you scale the person to the correct size and proportion because it gives you something to compare the person to in your drawing.

6. Draw small versions of each person you sketch. This practice will help you to look for the details and shapes that are crucial to the drawing.

References

• Making a Mark: 10 Tips for How to Sketch People
• Learn to Draw Right: Sketching on Location
• Drawing Pencil Sketches: Sketches of People Doing All The Things That People Do