I like to sketch people on the go. Most of the time, it is very hard to capture them when they are walking. So what I do is, capture them on camera and refer to the photograph. That easy. But nonetheless, drawing people who are into reading or waiting or having coffee is much easier.

Here are my sketches of people:

So…what do you need to draw like me?

1. Mechanical pencil (2B o.5mm lead thickness) with small eraser underneath the push button. I use Rotring Tikky; but hey, any pencil will do long as you want to draw. Why mechanical? I hate sharpening pencil. I love the fine and clean feature that mechanical pencil offers.

2. A sketchbook with thinner weight and less texture. A4 or foolscap papers are also good.

3. Be somewhere where there are people.

4. A place where you can sit quietly and observe and draw.

5. A cup of coffee, if you’re in a cafe ;P

To me, field sketching is about connecting with nature and allowing yourself to discover things you cannot see in a photograph. It heightens your own knowledge in learning more about the subject. During my balik-kampung session last weekend, I got to draw a pineapple plant.

How to draw on field?

I assume you have the basic tools with you; sketchbook, pencil and or watercolor (optional) before you begin.

Here’s how to start drawing :

• Take a deep breath and smell the nature..
• Go near to the subject and take few minutes to study the details (if the subject is a plant, it’s easy but if it’s animal or bug, they won’t stay still and you need to study the basics very fast: the shape, the details, textures, proportion, etc).
• If you need to see little details, look very close. If your eyes are not so good, a magnifying glass would be handy.
• Feel the subject with your hands if you need to study more about their texture.
• Draw the basic shapes and later, the details.
• Please refer back to your subject as often as you can.
• Draw the shading based on what you see.

So, basically the above pointers will lead you to something like this:

I don’t have the photo of this pineapple but but I do have a photo of my niece trying to ‘hold’ me on her palm. I was drawing this pineapple.

I realise that I haven’t posted any sketches lately, so here is one. This is based on imagination only.

You know, I hate the watermark so much but I had to put it there, else it’ll go right back at me. Orang akan berkata “siapa suruh tak letak watermark?” atau “siapa suruh letak kat internet”? atau “pergilah register copyright!”

Hmm. MENTALITY of some.