Not quite urban sketching

 Proportions, shading, detail- Urban Sketching for me is both relaxing and challenging. I love drawing and painting on the go, but I also love precision and detail. And while the latter often results in illustrations I like and am proud of, the amount of time they take is not conducive to the shorter sketching stints available on outings with other artists. My sketching book is full of pictures with potential, drawings that, had I had just half an hour more, would be quite nice.

   A friend of mine has switched from drawing with pencil to a more direct approach recently where she does just the most basic outline and then begins to refine layer by layer while adding in levels of detail. Her sketchbook is colorful and cheery. In fact, it is just the sort of sketchbook that would be fun to have as a momento of a trip, and as I would occasionally like to do sketching trips and come back with actual work, I have been trying to learn her haphazard yet effective method. Thus the last three sketches in my sketchbook.

These don't fully qualify as urban sketches since they were not completed on location. The initial work was always done from life and then details were added at home later in the day. I have one done in lighter tons as well as one two where I wanted to emphasis the windows by using bolder blues and purples.

 Here is my step by step process for the last of the above illustrations:

 All in all it was a fun little sketch- not perfect but colourful.

 Do you like or create detailed art work or are you more attracted to sketches? Let my know in the Comments

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