Sketching with contours

I tried a new way of sketching, thanks to a tutorial written by Jasmine at The Daily Art Tattler. It was a little unnerving at first, because it seems unnatural to how I'm used to sketching, but it also didn't take long to adapt either.

The first sketch, was of my husband at the table, typing on his laptop. It took all of a minute to do, thanks to the fact I was focusing on his form, rather than the intricate details of features. His position also didn't change much.

The second sketch was of my son. It's not as recognisable as a form, because he had his back towards me at the time, and was in the process of getting up - hence the sidewards lean. Kids are so unpredictable. I had all of 10 seconds (if that) to capture his form and so it's less accurate.

It's amazing how quickly a figure can be captured, just by filling in the shape, as opposed to the details. Once I drew the contours, I was able to sketch in some more definitive lines. While it's a relatively quick way of sketching, the longer the subject remains still, the more likely it will resemble a "natural" figure.

Thanks to Jasmine's tutorial, it was an interesting process to learn - and very quick too! Although I suspect I didn't do the tutorial real justice, as I did take my material off the paper - habits are hard to break, lol, and I did focus on drawing chunks of a person, which in essence IS a detail.

Even so, I still learned some new techniques.