People Sketching Around Town

I’ve recently been out and about sketching people, whether it’s been in coffee shops, breweries, or on the job site. I’ve been trying to work on different postures, to give new life to my people sketches. So I look for people stretching, leaning, rotating, etc… but sometimes, I just like their shirt or hair!

A couple sketcher friends and I met at a coffee shop (JS Bean Factory) in St. Paul a few weeks ago and just sketched people sitting near our table. The dappled sunshine and light breeze made for a fun afternoon! The two ladies below were talking, I liked the posture of the person on the left.

I saw this man looking at his phone and liked the burgundy color of his shirt, plus he had cool hair and a beard.

One afternoon I looked out my front window, and a tree trimming truck was cutting down a tree across the street in a neighbor’s yard. So I grabbed my sketchbook and got working. Since I knew it would be parked for awhile, I worked on the truck first, then added the workman in the bucket.

I went to Pioneer park in Woodbury, and saw large trucks hauling dirt and a bulldozer lifting up dirt in a large field. A woman in a hard hat (on the right) walked over to me, I think she was making sure I didn’t get too close to the action. They were putting in a large gray sewer pipe for water runoff. (see the pipe piece in the foreground). I sat quietly for awhile and sketched the orange construction fence, the truck waiting to be filled with dirt, and the bulldozer. I left her uncolored, to stand out against the yellow bulldozer.

I decided to work in a bigger sketchbook for these next sketches. My COVID “Lock-down” sketchbook was only partially full, so I got it back out to work larger. I had the opportunity to sketch at the Classic Car show at Woodbury Days (like a mini fair), and enjoyed sketching people, cars, and other interesting sights. Here is a video clip and still photos.

I was on a roll and couldn’t wait to sketch more people! A friend and I sketched at the St. Paul Brewing patio area, which was super fun. There were tons of furniture, plants, displays, antiques, and garden ornaments to look at. I settled into sketching a couple groups of people enjoying lunch. The two men in Vikings shirts are brothers from the Netherlands. One came over to us, he had noticed us sketching. We showed him our sketches, and he took pictures! We brought our books over to his family and they were excited to see themselves on our pages. It’s fun to think pictures of our sketches will go back to the Netherlands when they return home. That made my day!

Sketching people always brings challenges and new experiences. You truly get to see human behavior and since every person is unique, I never get tired of it. You have to work quickly as your subjects might get up and leave, or change position. But with a lot of practice, you overcome obstacles and end up with some fun sketches!