Drawing People

Being an illustrator, especially a children’s illustrator means there’s a chance that you’ll be drawing people at some point. So it’s good to arm yourself with as much drawing people from life as you can! It’s kind of like filling your imagination with tools. How do people behave and look and act? What do they do? How do they move? What do they wear? It’s hard to conjure this up straight from imagination, so it’s helpful to have a kind of reference file in your brain which you can collect in a sketchbook and file away for later. The more you draw, the more ideas for characters and plot lines for future book projects.

However, I’m not very good at drawing in public these days - I think it’s since lockdown in 2020, I feel much more self conscious. I always worry that someone’s going to march up to me and be freaked out and angry that I’ve been drawing them. But ya know, sometimes the only thing to do is get back in the saddle, so that’s what I’ve been doing.

I started doing a 100dayproject and posting daily drawings of people on instagram, but it got to be a bit too much. There just wasn't the time! I juggle part time employment with parenting as well as illustration, so it’s just not possible to squeeze in daily drawing people time within a few hours that I’ve got to myself two days a week. So I’m back in the saddle, but on more or less a weekly basis. I carry a sketchbook with me for whenever the opportunity to draw arises.