Last week I sketched at Melbourne Rare Book Fair.

I often sketch at events. below is a recent exmple.

Usually, it is a talk or presentation that goes for about one hour I will sit at the back of the room, often choosing my seat for its view of potential sketching. I am capturing the event on location at the time it happened. I usually have a known time to sketch. In general, no one in the audience is going to move. although the presenters may change. But sometimes people take off their jackets, and others arrive late, changing or blocking my view.

I am not good at faces, but I do try to include the presenter/s at the lectern or podium.

I can listen to a talk and sketch at the same time, In fact, sometimes it helps me focus on the talk, as the sketching relaxes me.

This week’s blog is about the choices I make when sketching. what to sketch and when and where to add colour.

It all depends on the place and space, When I walk into the room where the talk is being held, I immediately scan it for where to sit for the best sketching potential.

Sometimes it is in a beautiful, historic, or interesting space and I know that I will want to try and include or feature that in my sketch.

I am always sketching the ‘backs of heads’ in the audience. They are almost always seated for these events but sometimes standing.

I am using a sketch from Melbourne Rare Book Fair to show the different decisions I could make. I did not have long on location to sketch this. 10 i=or 15 minutes, I was standing up nearby, leaning against a wall. I was out of the way of people walking by, but it was not a space to stand for a long time.

Firstly I do a quick sketch of the people and their stances. On this occasion, they moved away quickly, so I had to get stances down quickly. Then some dot points and lines to show where the bookshelves are in relation to the people. This gives context and proportion.

I add extra detail to the people and what they are wearing.

In this case, I took a photo ( I never usually do this). I added the books at home and their colour, This was important to make the sketch specific to one specific booth and their shelves.

So when I finished I had this version;

I could choose to feature the people

or I could choose to feature the books. This is what I did in the version on my sketchbook

or I could choose both books and people

I also coulfd have chosen a bit of both -people and books.

Each different decision has a different impact on the viewer. As I am usually sketching and colouring on location, I tend to do a bit of both. Which version do you prefer?