Hey I'm Scotty and in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to sketch people like this in a city scene step by step using a really loose ink and watercolor sketching technique. So before we start I just wanted to show you some simple basic proportions that we're going to be using as we sketch all these figures. So this is a warm-up I did with my Patreon members. In this figure here you can see the head, the body or the torso and then the legs here. And then we have the arms then the hands and the feet.
So when we're sketching we can break it down in our minds into simple shapes where the head is first and then we come down for the shoulders. This torso section is about halfway and then down to the feet. You can also see that it's tapered so the widest point is the hips.
So over here we don't draw the wide shoulders like that, we draw more of this shape. So we have a nice flow to the shape. Okay the first step we need to do is just draw a line on the bottom so that we know where all the feet go, something like that. We're going to start on the left here and make our way across.
But if you find that you can't fit all the figures in, that's totally okay. Just stop wherever your page ends. Six or seven centimeters here and I'm putting a dot for the very top of the head. So now I've got a place about an approximate height.
Now I can just add a few more across here just to get it consistent across as I'm adding people. And then we want something just to show where the waist is. So the waist is Between the dots if we go halfway and then just down slightly we'll put the dot there and that's approximately where the waist will be.
Remembering we're looking at the figure and breaking them down into those those big shapes. Okay so let's draw this first figure here and we're just drawing the head okay just approximately like that that's the head shape and then we come down shoulders and then slightly exaggerating the shape there of his body and I've got that smaller top wider at the bottom here in the middle and we taper back down so let's give the curve the other way his leg comes in like this and then back out like that. And now let's go to the arms. Same sort of shapes here, it's wider here and then narrower here.
That's what we're doing again for the arms. So we've got the shoulder, now we're just coming in and down. His wrist stops about where his crotch is.
So with all these figures we'll draw them about to half way there. And then we can add the hand on the end, just a little box like that. And then the feet, and the other foot here.
Just very simple basic shapes. Now let's start adding just a little bit of detail. We'll go through and so we put a dot right in the middle of his head there.
Down from that dot is where the ear is. And then we can draw the hairline in. Like this.
And now the face. Now you don't have to draw faces on your figures here because they are quite tricky having it this small. So I'm going to put in a few simple lines. for the face.
So we go down about a third from the chin to the hairline, just go down about a third. It should be equal to the top of the ear. And we put an eyebrow and then the eye, just attach like that. And then you can draw from the eye out down about two-thirds from the height there. We can put the nose so it goes out and then in like that.
And then he's got a little mouth but don't draw a big mouth. I think it's really hard with a pen this size to draw a big mouth. It'd just be a dot or just a little subtle line there.
halfway between the chin and the bottom of the nose. And that's all we can really do at this size. Now I'm going to go through and add a little bit more detail here to describe what's going on. We have a bag that goes here, might have some creases. Okay so that's our first figure, really quick and impressionistic.
Now we do the next person and that's the hair there. I'm not drawing out lines of noses yet, about halfway again just look where our dots are and then the bottom here. Okay that's the first leg, back like that. I'm trying to draw them all in one line eight segment, little foot there.
The arm is about as long as that body section there, but the elbow is halfway. So bring up the elbow imagining it comes to here Like that and then goes that same distance up to about there Box on the end for the hand and the umbrella will come back like this Okay, we'll go might go behind his head with the angle I've sketched it dot there for the top middle bit of the umbrella back down And then we have the middle of the head again here on the back, hairline and then a little bit of an eyebrow and an eye, very subtle nose, very light, just a dot for the mouth there. Okay and so then we have the next lady, holding an umbrella like this, we draw there to the waist that's that size there, and then this one has a dress so it's a little bit different.
Elbow here, let's go down and up, shaft there if the umbrella goes this way, draw a line here and then back. this one shows a bit of the underside of the umbrella. Yeah and come down this way and once again maybe we just had the eye there. We don't have to add all the features in every figure.
Okay and then we have our next person he's got a hat on. So come across a little bit more. And he looks a bit closer so he's, he must be walking on this side and really close to us.
The front of his face like this and his chin goes back. Okay now same sort of thing but we've got a nice curve on his back so he's back, arches back like this. And then down to the bottom you can see the foot comes out this way.
We'll go this side so make it about the same angle his two legs. Shoe comes up like this and the other one has it's in the air so goes up like that. The arm shoulder comes down to there and then it changes direction back to there. And then a little box for the end and there's the sleeve like this. Just I think the brow eyebrows about there and then he's definitely got a nose like this little nose and then just a tiny dot the mouth like that.
Okay I'm gonna move to this next figure here like that top bit and then a curve and the ear is still in the middle this now he's outside shape goes down about halfway but there's a bike here so I'm not going to draw too much detail I'm going to add in that afterwards we can do his shoulder Tapered shape down to his arm there Sleeve, okay, let's put this boy in who's riding a bike head about here because he's the closest He's actually looks the biggest and then it says still the same halfway point arches back like this, come down, his foot comes straight down and it's like this. See, and then halfway there, cut that off for the shorts. That still that pointy triangle shape that I showed you, comes down about halfway between there and then changes direction in the dot in the middle and then here glasses I don't think I'll be able to fit the glasses in by the way okay now the wheels and the bike so just a nice loose crazy circle there like that and the same sort of thing remember between the legs bottom here like that Shoulder, same thing here in the middle.
Lady here holding the blue umbrella. Okay, so I'm looking at those two points. I'll just reconnect them. I can't really see what's going on there.
And then the skirt comes down like this. wrinkles in there and the foot comes out like this. So you've got the shoulder coming down and then across up to that wrist and then a bigger shape on the end.
Now the next big figure is this one here so his head's a little bit taller than the other head. So I know that the dot is about there. So go up a bit higher and outline the shape of his head like that and then tapers back in this way that. It's still coming to those two tapered points. Halfway between here and there and then across his hand.
Now the ear is here a little bit on the side there so I can't see his face. This is his head shape and then goes back like this down to halfway and then that shape will go this way. It'll be a little bit higher than that.
He's got his arm this way. Goes down to straight down here and a little bit of a hairline and then And then I'll try this time with the glasses, let's see if this works. Just put a line, a little straight line on the end.
The hair on the back, it's the head shape. And then the tapered shape of her body. And then we've got her legs coming down. One leg coming that way, and the other leg that way.
Feet on the end. And then... And then we've got the other leg coming down. Look at the eyebrow. Okay I've done all my figures.
Now we want to add a background but I think the best way to do that would be to frame a little bit of sketch. Put two dots on the top like that and then we're drawing those lines. Okay like that.
And then we have some really interesting details like that lamp, the light and the sign here. The no entry sign. So I'm going to put that about here. You can change where things go.
and some sort of thing you can go outside there like that. One line try one line just to make it look chaotic. Okay just like that this light section like this and then break them up like that so maybe the same height as that.
that. Let's see I have no idea what this sign would say but I'm imagining that it's something to do with pedestrians. Let's add some light poles there they're very hard to see but let's just add something there. There's some nice wobbly lines.
angle, a little line in the end, just make sure you've waited for the ink to dry there on your pen, it only takes a few minutes. So I've got burnt sienna which is my favorite color for the skin tone. So what I'm going to do is go through all of the skin and just put a little bit of that on it. It's a very sunny day everyone's got their umbrellas too. protect themselves.
And I'm not thinking about those people behind my main figures yet. They're just going to be very abstract. Okay our legs.
Okay and now you've got the the skin colour in we can go through and add lots of different colours to the clothing. So whatever colors you've got, you can add in here. It doesn't have to match exactly. So let's pop them in. That's just just a simple block color and there's a bit of white in her dress.
So I have a light blue, a bit of blue on the top. top edge. Burnt umber. Then for the, if we had Payne's grey, a little bit more Payne's grey to that. Because now the skin should be dried.
Let's do these wheels. See like that. There's a little bit of white there. That navy colour for his bag.
Come across like this. A very, very light sap green for his t-shirt. Or at least it's an olive-y colour. Her bag here is yellow.
And I'm doing this bag here. Keep going around, finding shapes. Okay yellow there, contrast with it nicely, that umbrella there.
Let's just have a gut feeling, something like different here, stripes. And do these pants, subtle in there. And we can do this sign here.
See if I can get in one stroke. Can leave a bit of white. Okay and then across, middle one there. So the end one is red. It shows there's something happening.
So maybe a leg coming here, behind the characters here. Or behind. of people that we're sketching.
Fills in some of those spaces, those shapes there. So it's a circle and then across through it like this. No U-turn and then this light.
Getting that shape. Okay, I'm grabbing my B- bigger brush now, around 12, and we're gonna add a skyline to here. I use cerulean blue up the top here. Let's go down. So we've got a bit of sky here that comes down like that, down about there, and then we're going high again.
We're gonna come down here, we're gonna start with a bit like this, and there might be some lines, so it comes like this. Windows coming across, add a shadow going up, and at the front here we have the road, so there's a bit of sky here. bit of red coming in here so a nice stroke.
Giving a bit of movement in there. Okay looking very busy like a city now with that back scene. So the next step is to add shadows so a bit of lighting into this scene. So the light is coming from this way. So underneath all the umbrellas and on the right hand side of all the people would just be a subtle shadow.
Where the arms are, underneath the bags, a bit on the arm there and there's a bit of shadow here across. So I'm behind the arm because the light would hit that. side there, just under the leg there.
We can darken up some of these background figures across the front. We have a Posca pen, so the PC-1M. A little impression of what what they are.
So pick out your favorite ones there and make sure you include them as you go. A little reflection on the lens like that. Just on the edges of things, so like the edge of the umbrella here or here. Just adding little sparkles.
So there you go, what do you think? That's how I draw people in a loose scene like this with ink and watercolour. If you want the full tutorial without any cuts, the reference so you can sketch along really easily with me, that's on my Patreon website.
I've also added a warm-up section at the beginning with a bit more explanation. about how to do proportions of these people. So if you want to learn more of this style I recommend you join my Patreon.
We've got a really nice warm community there. You can share sketches and encourage each other and I've got a whole lot more tutorials there, fundamentals that you can start if you're a beginner. Otherwise thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.