When I needed to drive my daughter and her friend to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to ride the rides and hang out, I thought it would be a good time to get some drawing in.
I needed to stay in the area the whole time (it would have been ridiculously far to drive back home), so I brought my sketchbook and pens along. Instead of sitting around doomscrolling on my phone for hours, drawing felt like a better, more enjoyable option.
What could I draw?
After walking around the boardwalk a bit and drinking a delicious, frosty mocha frappe, I took out my sketchbook and began drawing.
To start, I inked a page full of faces I plan to share with you in a future post.
You guys like urban sketching, so this one will be focused on how I got one done at the beach.
I gotta say, once I decided to urban sketch, I was afraid to walk off the boardwalk onto the beach next to it to look at the rides and people walking by. Maybe I was concerned everyone would think it was strange that a guy sitting on the beach is looking at the boardwalk with a pen and paper instead of out at the ocean. Who knows!
Eventually, I got up the nerve to walk onto the sand and find a good place to sit and sketch. I loved the view of the Haunted Castle, so I did a quick marker sketch first to lay out where everything would go.
Use a pen to scribble the details with energy
Drawing without a pencil is scary, but one of the reasons I love urban sketching is the idea that what you put down doesn’t have to look perfect. Your goal is to capture the landscape or view with as much energy as possible. That usually means, moving quickly and letting your lines turn into scribbles for details.
I love how smooth a Pigma Micron pen feels as you move around the paper.
Stay loose and draw by moving your arm and not just your wrist.
When you get back home, paint it with watercolor
Painting on-site at the beach could have been nice, but spending time just drawing was a good way to focus on one discipline. In my mind, I knew I could choose to color it later if I liked how it turned out. So, that’s what I did!
Painting quickly and a bit messily at home was enjoyable—no need to worry about how perfect it looks. I made sure to fill in all the areas and added some darker values here and there.
Finished! Lots of scribbly details and bright colors. Here’s a short video showing the process. I posted it here on Substack Notes, which is only about a minute long:
Drawing while you’re out and about is a great way to liven up errands and everyday life responsibilities.
Where will you take your sketchbook?
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.