Urban Sketching: Learn fast inking & combat mental blocks! Speedy sketch Challenge. | Ed J Brown | Skillshare
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Urban Sketching: Learn fast inking & combat mental blocks! Speedy sketch Challenge.

teacher avatar Ed J Brown, Illustrator, Typographer

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      2:29

    • 2.

      Project Outline

      2:03

    • 3.

      Tutorial 1: Sketching Basics and Ideas

      7:19

    • 4.

      Tutorial 2: Nature - Trees, Water, Plants etc...

      7:15

    • 5.

      Tutorial 3: People - Hair, Clothes, Breasts, Bums and Penis'

      7:26

    • 6.

      Tutorial 4: A few common things and some final thoughts.

      4:37

    • 7.

      Pre Challenge Talk: Important!

      1:36

    • 8.

      Challenge 1: 15 Minutes of Still Life.

      15:04

    • 9.

      Challenge 2: 10 Minutes Street Scene

      10:05

    • 10.

      Challenge 3: 5 Minutes Party People

      5:10

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About This Class

Hi, my name is Ed! 

I'm a professional illustrator and creator of this class on editorial illustration. 

What will I learn in this course?
I'd like you to learn two things all wrapped up in one exercise.

      

1) Is to teach you the way I like to sketch on location and to do so at speed! 

Often when sketching there is very little time to get detail down, be it because the subject is moving or because you are keeping your friends waiting! Either way it is important to master the art of fast drawing.

 One of the most important skills in getting good at this is learning to not care or be precious about your work. This is why I use brush and ink and why I advise my students to also. It's exceptionally hard to achieve a high level of detail in a short amount of time with this medium.

You'll get better at drawing and hopefully discover a new way of working that will aid you in your every day practise. 


2) To help you out of a creative mental block (if and when they arise!)

Working quickly and under pressure in this way is a great stress reliever. It doesn't really matter what the outcome is and it really helps to open the mind and get those creative juices flowing. If ever I find myself stuck on a project, or lacking inspiration, the first thing I turn to is this method of fast sketching.

Who is this class for?
This class is for anyone really, though professionals may get less use out of it, like me, they may enjoy seeing how other people work! However I think this course is particularly useful to those people just getting into drawing, sketching and illustration, or maybe people looking to expand their skills and cross over from another discipline.

So, as before, take my hand and lets have a big old learn shall we?

Yours,

Ed

www.edjbrown.com
hello@edjbrown.com

xxx

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Ed J Brown

Illustrator, Typographer

Teacher

"I really like Ed J Brown's work,
stretching, as it does, from the
vernacular of Barnum and Bailey
& Billy the Kid to the landscapes
of the Steppes via the urban stomp
of Berlin.

Let him loose on your projects
and rejoice in the wild colour
and wicked line."


-Martin Colyer, Readers Digest

Ed is a UK illustrator based in Leipzig, Germany. He's worked with lots of people - check his website and see.

See full profile

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: Blue. My name is Reggie Brown. I'm an illustrator at greater funds. Star of that editorial illustration. Class on Skill Share Father of None on brother to to I get busy on Dhere Some of the work of done for my five year career as an illustrator, I get asked a lot by people how I work, how to form ideas on how to get out of a creative block. Now there are many ways to do this. Go for a walk, hold your breath, drinking coffee, drink a beer. All of these could be great options at different times. But why not combat mental block? Andi get better, More confident in your artwork. At the same time, things may sound like a lot, but all too often I hear from people that they spend way too long deliberating and agonizing over their work. We'll work in different ways and in different mediums. Some naturally take longer than others. But if you find yourself overworking your images, you nearly always gonna be disappointed. I'll be guiding you bit by bit, from various sketching and observational drawing methods and then challenging you guys to step out of your comfort zone and to do the same. You'll have three times videos to draw from in this class, each with increasingly shorter time and different subject matter. This method of doing short time sketches and using a medium is unruly is a brush his perfect for getting you out of old and possibly bad habits. There's no time here to care if everything is drawn properly, and that's exactly the goal. To not care by the end of this class would be well equipped in the art of fast sketching and should have three or more links to upload and share with everyone else. Click and roll, let's get started. 2. Project Outline: Hello again. Thanks for enrolling. So over the next four videos, I'll be guiding you through my method of sketching how I like to use brushing on specifically how to simplify your sketches and get the most out of your time on medium. Then comes your turn of loaded three different live videos one of 50 minutes, one of 10 minutes on an extra heart challenge of five minutes. Remember, the whole point of this is not how accurate join you could make in a short amount of time. Photo realism is for cameras. All you need to do is get an impression. Snapshot. It should be personal toe how you like to draw, and the best outcome is one where you're simply happy to take the time out to sketch, no matter the result you will need. You don't need card, but you don't want to pay the so thin that it could be seen through to the other side. I think the black of the better. I recommend permanent Indian ink and Kiva, the Chinese calligraphy brush, refillable ink pen. Like this one. You can, of course, use any brush comes the hand. The reason I say to use. One of these is that it has a very fat based on a very thin tip whose life allows for rated line, very primitive. Over the next two videos, I'll be going from one shortcut method of sketching to the next. So don't forget, you can decrease the speed, pause or rewind the video. If you want to watch things again, I'd recommend having a sketchbook hands during the videos and at least the first copy. What I do make your variations. It doesn't matter if you miss some of the items like you just get pen to paper. After this, you're gonna be ready to tackle the video challenges. 3. Tutorial 1: Sketching Basics and Ideas: so I'm just gonna jump straight into it. I'll start with this brush pen will move on to 70 filigree brushes, but it's always good to give it a squeeze. Have a bit of scrap paper hand to see what the consistency is like. This one's a little bit drive, but sometimes that's good. So first I want talk about framing. This is something I really like doing while sketching. I think that all too often people have a tendency for wanting to, you know, just start drawing Andi. Sometimes it's nice to actually choose which sections you want to draw. You don't have to draw this entire page. So sometimes, like starting off with making some frames, you don't have to draw the whole lot. You can choose which bits you want to start drawing first. So basically remember, speed is the key, so you keep things really simple. You can see there's no pressure for me to have Teoh think, Oh, I need to do everything you know. If I just want to draw this little section here, there's nothing wrong with doing that. There's nothing wrong with making these little snapshots, and it's a great way you actually framing your work without feeling pressure to fill the entire page in your sketchbook again, it doesn't matter how. It's not about detail. It's just about getting the idea down. You can fill your page, all sorts of little bits and things that you see. So, for example, this I was not having a garden, and I had a 3 60 panorama of things that really nice. But what did I see in the distance? There was some little mountains with a rooftop, and I wanted to capture that at the back of the garden. There was a nice little hill on a crucifix, wanted to capture that On the one side there was a little church that's in clouds. You could take the time out to frame on to make little snapshots. It save you time on. Frankly, I think it looks quite good. So when started withdrawing like this, wanting to be quick, I had to start with the head. You just want to get the outside shape, so just get tiny little bits of detail, as I there's knows. Has he got a moustache? No. Sure. Start by getting a rough outline again, because she's not important. They're different. Purchase to sketching as well. You could just make linear like this, or you can even just try and focus on the shade. So does he go here? Got his hair that for the year? Yeah, I there's is the arm back. As you can see, you don't actually have to draw a complete outline. The I mind fills in the gaps itself. I've got some examples here, but as you can see, it's not important to draw everything. I've completely left out all of their clothes in the rest of them, but because of the lines and the angles, it gives you an idea of the figure. And obviously there's an idea of hierarchy and are working whatever you're drawing. So I was being is this guy's the focal point. Maybe these guys don't need so much detail. It's okay for them to just be in the background stops. Uh, some fresh Look. Now, I know you may have seen people. Um, painting like this is one of these brushes. If you want to give that a go cool. Honestly, I just hold my like a pencil. Then, if that's the correct way to do it but, uh Well, what you gonna do thing? Is he gonna be quick? If something is a focal point? Maybe you want to give that a bit more detail? Spend more of your minutes on that. Unless, say, if there happens of you going the background person, the background doesn't need any more detail. Just a bit of shading. That's okay. I remember trying to quick maybe this guy in the background walking his sheep. It looks like, um, that's just some buildings. These guys get the importance. Another thing. When drawing life, Obviously people move. You can't expect some ecstatic If you want to draw this guy really quickly, you do it from a photograph like I'm doing now. Or you know what? It doesn't matter that, you know, this guy moved his arm so just draws on twice. It's OK. And it's also really important, I think, to try and fill the space just like some of this life during here you feel the space start stuff with one during I did that in a few minutes. Change the angle. My dream again. Dream again. Dream again A room again. I do just his legs drew just the shade a dream from the side from the top down fill the space. There's no right or wrong way to do anything. But don't be pressured. This page here has to be one perfect portrait. It doesn't. You can frame things. You can repeat things. You could be messy. Doesn't matter. And I much prefer Thetis to something, you know, over works having one big figure there, you know? 4. Tutorial 2: Nature - Trees, Water, Plants etc...: so this one will look at nature. As you can see, trees could be very intricate things. You've got a short amount of time. You don't want to waste it, drawing go tree so intricately. It's a lot of work, Andi. Like I said in previous videos, you're probably gonna overwork it. So let's just keep it simple. Some quick tree types I usually start with a very simple There's the trunk. Seriously, as simple as this. You wanna get farmers going quickly? Here you go. One type of tree, another type of tree. I've got an entire book of quick trees just here. You can have three branches and fill them out later. As you can see here, this is just the type of trees that were that that works. You know, you gotta like, for example, here a tree in the foreground Make it a bit thicker. It's got the same leaves coming up it you can, even if it's a very bushy tree. People get the idea. This took a few minutes. It gets against the idea across the forest is and rocks over the clouds and the same is exactly truthful place. Same idea. Start with a live, you get simple. If you have a section in the distance within dense trees, just like with the little men in the background, they don't need to be anything more. Just the tips of your brush. Instant forest. I would emphasize that this trees that puts him in the foreground. My face just the tips. Instant forest hair was in the park, but a couple of different trees here. You could just do sweaters. As you see this one, Justin tree we loathe. Same is true with grass. What is grass? A collection of Blades said before her. She is a very, very versatile. Got a section where you need some work. I had a knot. You're lying. Another sketching quickly is all about. Get in the real fight lines and I think enough recognizable texture. But someone could see this immediately. Know what it is, whether it's life like Oh, no way. Come back to this image. Great thing to do with water. It's still body like a lake. And what is it? Reflecting mountains, lines sharing the mountains. It's a full on those lights. Can some of these guys instant pool effect on? If you wanna get me like the ocean. This was a lot better with a brush and brush been spreading. Brussels that bristles out a bit. Waves, I believe, a little gap in the middle. Instant stormy seas. Good tip is to try and change the angle of the brakes here. I don't even really need to look at this. If I want to do that, I can get with the way rolls in for the It's not even exactly important to follow it too much. Once you got a process, you start have working of how to create an image that doesn't relies so much on sitting and making sure everything is exactly right. If I was to try and draw this exactly as it is, it was a really, really long time, and I could not guarantee the outcome this way. It's not just fun. It works for keeping on the water theme. Let's say, for example, it's raining. It's very simple. Long bones. A combination of some short ones gets the idea across. It's rain on still water, such as a puddle. Do you put a lot line? Get your rain drops. It is very hot ring, making little hours don't forget triples. Just a little. Circles make them overlap. They would. In your life. It's a puddle. Clouds another one. They can be tricky to draw clouds, but they don't have to be that I need to be any more complicated. Just a few lines in this guy. You can't do this whole thing. That's fine, too, with a flat bottom squiggly line over the top. I don't have some wind. It doesn't matter if you actually draw the wind. It's a bloody day. Gets the idea across one of the Virgin, there were two. It's an age old trick. It doesn't need changing stats. And these. It's an instant. But you can't go wrong on finally looking at rocks on stone, just like the wood here. Don't forget that it's all about the texture. What is that? I'm not sure. As soon as it's in context, just add a few lines. Get the area full, people will get the idea. Just do your best to create the kind of texture with rock appears like to you, with whatever mark making you want to do 5. Tutorial 3: People - Hair, Clothes, Breasts, Bums and Penis': so people people don't tend to stay still particularly long. So we start with hair, has very, very easy to simplify again. Let's start with the year. The back. She's got sort of Dhaka bits. Do you like that? It doesn't need any more than that if someone is curly haired. This guy, for example, had dreadlocks. I had them tied up in a bun. Andi could have spent a while drawing each strand, but actually it works just the same. Whose? And lips. You can start by doing an outline of hair and then filling it in. Or you could just I just do some lines. This works as well. I'd like to give people quite a long hair, maybe from enjoying some more. It started like this. People get the idea. You can come out, and if you like, you don't have to. When it comes to face is that one has the right sort of style. I went through a phase of doing everyone's eyes, kind of like this. Stop it. Guys have some kind of knows way too cheekbones, but faces in particular think almost more personal and the rest So it's entirely up to the way that you want to draw. You wanna spend a little bit more time? That's OK. Remember to just try and be quick. Drew another Facebook. You really quick. I promise to do this guy. Probably stuff that I grow my It doesn't matter. Get the mouth exactly right. It's about getting the idea down. For example, syphilis line in the dogs. No, this could be a simple is this knows. Come bay, you know, you could draw both sides. You just roll $2 like that. There are many ways to nose, and it's really however you like when it comes to clothes just like rock stars like wood. Remember that texture is key. All right, so so you can draw the outline. Outline, right. Let's get a linear idea going. But for me, getting the texture here almost more important on you could do in many ways. You just have. That's, um, stitching. How do you Chris lines? It doesn't matter. For example, this doesn't have cross hatching. Cross touching is a really, really great just gets a nice texture across. People know immediately it's clothing. Same with shoes. Don't like to waste my time on shoes. Actually, small people, simple lines that's issues grows. Maybe trainers, whatever you choose to do, keep it simple. Have a method that's in the same or something is really great for hats as well. Maybe hold on. Maybe fancy you ladies hat. Either way, I have an idea. It's a line in a circle. It's not too different from the I Andi. Finally, let's get onto some interesting stuff. If you're drawing a news particular with women on easy mistake to make our breasts, so you know that's not a breast. A good trick, remember, is that breasts like gravity take the same thing. Imagine it's idea, given small groups like you know itself. No. One, no one's breast have that great gravity is actually quite powerful force. It's always gonna be a little bit website. Same with the buns. No, no one's comes. I like this, I think, uh, so if you're drawing someone from behind the outline, remember that they're a bit saggy. Then you could do typical this that this curve goes from underneath. No side to side and not to leave men out. Your drawing penises well, quickly. One ball might be lower than the other. It's fine. It's a simple is this? No, I didn't give him this all day. Tell those millions 6. Tutorial 4: A few common things and some final thoughts.: Leslie. I'm just gonna bless their a few more common things. Right? So you got chimney. You've got factory. You've got cigarette smoke is very simple. Don't look that you can do that much. You can even just destroy the underside. A cigarette smoking in particular is very thin. Like drawing water out of town. Right? You enjoy like that. Look, some point the water starts to I have to imagine kind of the same thing. Smokes just like water. But in the end, find yourself drawing brickwork. This student types, you've got the older kind, which is the dry stone walling. Just loose stones. I really want to get kind of intra group. Have to do anything more. You have to take your pen off the page. Just get looping. Remember, texture, texture, texture. Saying the bricks. You know, I wouldn't advise wasting your time doing this. Doesn't look good. Get some lines on the go. Control the old one. Maybe I just throw the odd creek people will get cause they be very pretty. So I'd like to just just start with top. That's a meals. Really simple Is a bad sports guy. Many on glory. It doesn't matter how you need your drawing quickly. You get this done on. You've got an instant road, basically pots and pans. Any receptacle circle with the item. Go back to this drawing. It's sort of combines it over, but you get the idea. This might have taken 15 minutes, but it has everything we've talked about. I've made everything in the foreground dark. Everything in the background is simple. Light, linear trees, just squiggles Bush's that just lines inducts the pots and pans there a simple as they can possibly be jars as a job. There's a wine buffel. There's a lump shade. Find yourself during blinds, just lines. You get the idea that there are blinds there. You don't need to spend ages during each little laid. Frankly, I don't think that looks good. It's all about figuring out what to simplify and what to keep in detail. It's hierarchy is filling in the space. That's a radiator walls. Well, they were a bit blank, so just absent texture. This was a carpet scribbled the design. It doesn't matter that the design wasn't exactly like this. It doesn't matter that you can see the crate with a couple of top of it doesn't matter that the car here is just a single line. Doesn't matter. This person here is basically a stick figure. This is what I really want to get across, drawing very, very quickly just getting the simple shapes. Andi, you'll be amazed when you finish how the thing comes together, how your picture comes together and actually you get a great idea of what it was like being there. Through this process, you can improve your drawing. You're gonna stop caring so much about being precise. It's gonna make you more confident in your decision making and importantly, if you find yourself in the midst of a mental block, you bashar a couple of these and you'll be amazed at how quickly you get out of it. So obviously I can't go through everything here. These are just some small examples to show you how I like to look how I like to simplify things, how I work with a brush. And when it comes to you drawing anything basically, but also in the video challenges you can stop. You can pause it here. You can work on individual items first. If you like. That's OK. Just be free, just being like just let you brush 7. Pre Challenge Talk: Important!: great. So you've made it through sketch boot camp. It's obviously not a comprehensive study of every single item here is out there in the world. There are plenty of things that when you go to draw them, then I won't have covered right. So what I want you to do is just look at what I did cover. Get a feel for the way that I like to simplify things, working out yourself, even for the items that I did cover. Just try and get things down. A simple It's all about good mark making. So remember frame things when it comes to doing videos you don't have to. I don't want you to draw everything you see filling the page, pick out little bits. Focus on an individual thing. I enjoy it again. Do it again. Do it again through another bit. Fill the page. If there's some detail, you don't think you can capture the time really, really simplify it. If this, um, blank space or if there's not enough information there and it leaves you with another area , then it's okay to make it up. You know, just like I said, with clothes, clothes, you don't always have a texture, right? So add some lines, make it crosshatch. Make it whatever you want. Inventor pattern. Put some dots. It's OK. Fill the space. Keep it loose. Keeping three no pressure on be sketching. 8. Challenge 1: 15 Minutes of Still Life.: uh, all right. 9. Challenge 2: 10 Minutes Street Scene: - way , Way. - Uh oh. 10. Challenge 3: 5 Minutes Party People: - That's I just No , I think Okay, - that way evidence.