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It’s very easy to get stuck drawing things that come easily to you. In my case, I have a natural tendency to draw animals and children. But I also like to broaden my skills and horizons. That’s why I started speed drawings for adults a while back. And in this blog I will tell you more about it.

Drawing people by category

To make sure that I expand my skills in all areas, I have divided people into categories. In this blog I show you an image of women that I have drawn. But babies, older people, men, the elderly, middle-aged people and other races/cultures are also on the list.

Getting better at drawing people. Speed drawing of women done in Procreate by Tamara Houtveen

Google maps and train stations

This week I had the perfect opportunity to draw at train stations. So urban sketching! But unfortunately the train stations are still fairly quiet due to the pandemic.

For that I’ve read a really nice tip online: drawing people with Google maps. With Streetview you can easily scroll to busy areas and you’ll have enough people to draw. The faces are blurred, so that puts your focus on a person’s pose and not on details like a face. A nice exercise and if you pick an exotic location you immediately have a ‘holiday from home’.

Drawing nice outfits

Another goal I have is to draw more playful outfits. I often end up with jeans combined with a t-shirt or sweater because that is what the average person (man & woman) in the Netherlands wears. (Too bad, I really like to see more creative outfits on the street). That’s why I have a Pinterest board with fashionable outfits, patterns and fun trends that I mix and match to make my own creative outfits. After all, you don’t want to literally copy an outfit, but give it your own twist.

Speed drawings

I use a time limit of max 3 minutes to draw a person. This way I don’t get too attached to the drawing and I can try out a lot of things and practice faster. My main focus is shape and color and I’ll skip on the details for this exercise.

In a next blog I will be happy to share more results from other groups of people I draw. What would you like to see?

Tamara Houtveen

Author Tamara Houtveen

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