It’s been a privilege to spend 30 days practicing drawing humans with you.

I thought I’d struggle to set aside more time to play with my fancy paints, but sketching people in pencil was exactly what I needed to kick start the year full of inspiration. Thank you!

The People Skills series is here for you to dip in and out of whenever you want to practice drawing humans or refresh some classic drawing techniques! It’s also linked in our Contents Page, which is great to bookmark for easy navigation.

Books

The Human Figure in Motion - Eadweard Muybridge (I also LOVE the animal version, which found here online!)

Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference for Artists (shoutout to for making me aware of this book. It’s a real treat!)

Online

100 People in 100 Minutes - Hosted by !

Line of Action - Timed drawing practice for figures, expressions, and much more!

Draw Brighton - Lovely live figure & portrait sessions and classes.

Ocean City Boardwalk Cam - I made a quick tutorial and demo here.

GES DRAW Party - A fun YouTube channel updated weekly! Thank you to for sharing this gem.

Earthsworld Instagram Account - Oregon based photographer focused on candid portraits of people at county fairs. Thank you to for sharing this one!)

Prompt

Look over all the work you’ve made this month!

If you dropped off or skipped days, that’s you listening to yourself — so well done! You can come catch up and do the exercises at your own pace. I’ll add to it as I find references and make discoveries in my practice.

Many thanks to amazing artist contributors this month: , Mark Hoffmann, , , Katie Moody, and !

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In our month of people-sketching practice, we’ve covered foundational techniques, like negative space, upside-down drawing, and pure contour. It just wouldn’t be right to leave out continuous line, would it?

So, here’s a little demo, prompt, and reference pictures to start your pencil moving and grooving, but don’t pick it up from the page until your drawing is complete!

Prompt

Draw one of the images below using one continuous line, without picking up your pencil, pen, paintbrush, crayon, etc. Try to keep your arm moving the whole time!

Recommended time: 5 minutes

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Fortunately, I learned that being on the edge of discomfort is the place to be for artistic growth. If you dislike this technique at first, it might mean it’s exactly what you need to push you toward your next exciting breakthrough!

Why does flipping your image upside down work?

In Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, she tells us that our logical left-brain hemisphere can’t process an upside-down image, so we draw using our right-brain side. That’s the part that brings us into that blissful, meditative state of awareness, where we’re fully present and focused on the subject and drawing. No self criticism or judgments arise once we’ve made that shift.

Prompt

• Draw the image below right side up, then upside down.

• Recommended time: 1, 2, and 5 minutes.

• Suggested materials: Marker, crayon, paint, or pencil!

These exercises aren’t for creating masterpieces. But if you do them enough, you’ll amaze yourself!

You know who LOVES an upside down drawing? ! She starts a lot of her art upside down and incorporates it into her lessons and practice. I’m excited for her portraits class next month! She shared a special 30% off code for Introvert Drawing Club members below.

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I took this great class called Love Life Drawing in 2020 and remembered the teacher recommending this hold. It makes for some pretty sweet mark-making and you filling-in action.

I switch it up if I’m using a chunky fountain pen.

And even switch to my non-dominant hand.

There’s no right or wrong way to hold your tools. I switch it up for comfort and looseness nowadays. I do love that side hold, and the the varied, textured line it gives me. I found myself drifting back to it when trying to change to the old way!

Let’s play with some different grips to draw the references below!

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Special thanks to for sharing people proportion tips! I’m proud to be a part of her community, where she encourages us to document our world in ways only we can.

Drawing people, like any other subject, takes practice and patience.

The more you observe and draw the human figure, the more you'll start to see the proportions and the shapes that form the body. It all comes down to understanding and comparing relative shapes.

For instance, our bodies are approximately eight heads tall.

If you were to stack eight "head" units, the bottom of the fourth would align with the pelvic line, meaning the legs make up the remaining four heads.

These proportions create a helpful framework for sketching the human figure. It’s fascinating to realize that the human body is essentially a collection of shapes working together—circles, ovals, rectangles, and more.

It's all very scientific! Learning some of these basic proportions really helps when observing people.

Once you grasp these basic principles, drawing people feels much less daunting and a lot more exciting!

It's okay to draw stick figures!

It is hard to draw our days without drawing people, right?

Drawing our family and friends will help to make our days on paper more interesting! There are so many ways that you can draw people-from stick figures to very realistic drawings, and everything in between. I encourage you to keep at it, because even if it feels hard, it will get easier. I have been drawing people for years and I still find it challenging. It is important to remember, like with many sections of this book, that however you choose to take on the challenge, your drawings will be uniquely yours. In fact, you can keep drawing stick figures forever if you choose to.

Be sure to subscribe to and thank Sam for these incredible people drawing tips!

This will help us with placing features, hairstyles, head/body proportion, and all sorts of other little bits that we can only learn with practice.

It’s also REALLY fun to draw from the references and see the different hairstyles and fashion choices!

Notes on drawing age progression

• Eyes stay the same size our whole lives, which is why they look so big on babies’ heads.

• Noses, ears and hair can tell us tons about a character’s age, because they’ll get bigger.

• Posture It’s not so obvious from these photos, but posture and how people hold their heads can give us lots of information.

There’s a mean man who lives around the corner and never puts his dog on a leash. I can spot him a mile away, because he has very slumpy posture. If you like the Simpsons, Mr. Burns comes to mind. I think of him anytime I’m drawing an advanced-age character, which are really some of my favorites to draw.

"Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art." - Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

Prompt

Draw Mark, Jeanne, Ted, Reece, or Jessica’s age progression from the photos below!

Suggested timings: 1, 2, and 3 minutes per square.

I made a grid if you want to print it and get right to drawing!

Ages Grid

5.2MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

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Just like our negative space technique, I rolled my eyes every time Ms. Teague made us do pure contour drawings in high school. Nowadays, I can’t get enough of it!

What is pure contour?

It’s drawing from looking only at your subject. You can’t look at your paper at all.

Why is pure contour so awesome?

Right brain comes out to play. You shift to a state of awareness that lets you see your subject in all its detailed glory. It’s that playful state where we don’t plan or analyze our work.

Level up that hand-eye coordination. - Practicing pure contour helps us find that rhythm when we draw that gives it energy and life. In all my most meaningful work, I remember having that flow that made the experience more fun.

Drawing experience vs. results - If you find yourself getting frustrated, stuck, lost, or unhappy with your art, do a couple of quick pure contour drawings at the start of your practice.

Warming up to draw - If you make this your 1-2 minute practice before your practice every day, you’ll notice a difference in how you draw. Here’s proof!

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Melissa made this brilliant video that she says isn’t a tutorial, but it’s incredibly helpful and entertaining. She also has a really fun 100 Faces in 100 minutes replay up that I think everyone should try!

This week, Melissa and the Art Hang Party crew will draw FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. How serendipitous! Here’s a link to all the info and option to get notified!

Tips & Takeaways

• Pay attention to the shape of the face first

• Start with the jawline

• Look at simple shapes and how they relate to each other

Thanks so much to for sharing your process and tips with us! I LOVE seeing how it unfolds as you practice drawing from life and references — so inspiring!

You can support with a donation to the virtual tip jar!

Don’t panic! I’ll walk you through my process to break things down into bite-sized steps so you don’t get stuck. Take my hand, and a few deep breaths, and we'll get through this together.

1. Draw a frame or box.

Drawing a box always switches my brain into it’s-time-to-draw mode!

2. Define negative space.

Blocking off all the spots in the box that aren’t the actual crowd.

3. Define the line of foreground people.

When I met Sarah Dyer in Brighton, she suggested drawing a “horizon line of buildings” when sketching complicated scenes. She gives superb sketchbooking advice, so I’ve been applying it to sketching crowds.

After this step, you’re set up for success. Now the fun begins!

Some ideas to try next:

• Creating a color palette (my favorite)

• Blobbing people shapes around the page

• Painting or coloring in the gaps in the crowd

See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? I’m here to help if you get lost or stuck in the crowd!

Also, shoutout to , who gave me the delicious Staedtler 12B I used in the video!

More from People Skills month:

Here’s a link to the full library so you can catch up!

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I review three foundational drawing techniques in the video, first taught to me by my high school art teacher, Ms. Teague.

• Negative space - drawing the space around the subject first.

• Continuous line - keeping your pen or pencil on the page the whole time you’re drawing.

• Blind contour - Not looking at your paper while you draw, only the subject.

Because I’m so hardheaded (there we go with the puns again), I resisted these methods when Ms. Teague taught us in class. I didn’t want to look at my hand instead of the paper when she told us to draw it. I remember cursing her in my head when she took us outside to sketch negative space between the tree branches.

Thankfully, I returned to them years later. These three techniques, especially negative space, help us learn to see what’s actually in front of us. They get us out of our heads, so we can draw the subject, instead of what our brain tells us is there.

Try them with the references below!

Which of the techniques do you go back to when you’re drawing these skulls?

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I made panels and put mustachioed men inside.

You know who uses panels beautifully? The incredible sketchbook artist Katie Moody! So I asked her for her take on drawing in this format. Here’s what she said:

Panels really help break down the fear of a blank page! It feels much easier to fill smaller spaces than one big one, and they’re so versatile too. You can use one image split into different views, or use totally different images and make them work cohesively in a panel layout! If you’re short on time, it’s also a great way to break up art into more manageable chunks by filling just a panel at a time!

Katie shares endless creative gems on her Patreon and YouTube channels, and has an exciting new book coming out soon Check them out!

I loved Katie’s approach to panels so much that I made you a whole printable page of them to try.

Mustache Panels Landscape

9.37MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Download and print them, draw mustachioed flutists in them, then let us know how it went in the chat! You can also draw your own!

Prompt & ideas:

• Set a timer for 3 - 5 minutes on each portrait.

• Limit your palette - I used multiple markers above, but only in orange/pink

• Limit materials - You could use only graphite or only paint, but in multiple colors.

I started a chat thread, so everyone can share their magical mustachioed panels!

Check it out and share!

Here are the reference photos!

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If you also feel moved to make a more finished image and have time to do so, go for it! I’d love to do this one a few more times, but we’ll move on to drawing groups of folks and faces soon.

It was fun starting with a watercolor base for this one, then sketching over it. If you watch the last part of the timelapse, you can see me play around with a few different faces before drawing this one.

Takeaways from drawing people and pets:

• Draw the thing that challenges a few times you on a loose sheet of paper before going in to draw the final!

• If the subjects are touching or person is holding the pet, sketch the overall shape first.

• Look at it the next day, figure what’s missing, (For me, the guy’s posture and expression wasn’t hitting the sweet spot.) then keep playing!

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He begins sessions with a magnificent mantra: "a bad drawing is better than no drawing at all," grounding us in creativity and imagination. In the video below, Shivam shares some ways he draws inspiration from humans he encounters.

When starting to practice drawing people, Shivam says:

• Give yourself some time and grace.

• Improvise and have fun!

• You don’t need to draw all the details. Focus on the details that are fun for you.

Be sure to join Shivam’s Dirty Hands Club on Patreon, where you’ll find inspiring art process videos, encouraging community, and fun live sessions!

Enjoy Shivam’s soothing voice and process video below!

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Drawing in this format helps me find a rhythm in my mark-making that I really love. Does it have that effect on you? I’m very curious to hear how others find this rhythm!

Things to try:

Negative space - start to draw draw around the students, rather than the students themselves.

Color blocking - Color in the shapes of the figures (wet materials are great for this), then add details on top.

Continuous line - Don’t lift your pen or pencil off the page as you draw each student.

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I am a wimp when it comes to cold weather! Here are ways I observe and sketch people from the car on a chilly, windy day.

Some people-sketching ideas for you to try

Make a big mark and build on that. If you look too long, you might lose them. So just put something - ANYTHING - down!

Draw small boxes and put people inside. I’ve found this to be less intimidating than trying to fill a whole spread of people doing things. Panels work great too! Katie Moody shared a great video about how she uses panels to draw from references. That could get you excited to try it on location!

Take a sketchbook everywhere - It doesn’t have to be fancy. Sheets of printer paper work fine! You can also make your own with in this session!

Observe, Observe, Observe. And of course, there is no better way to observe than to carry a sketchbook with you wherever you go. - Walt Stanchfield, Drawn to Life

It’s not the time to be literal or judgy. It’s like as scribbling notes in a classroom — you don’t have to print neatly. This is to help you focus and retain information. You can look back on them later and reflect, but not in the moment!

Just sketch for five minutes. It’s a magic number. I squeezed my whole afternoon of errands and sketching into the five minute video!

No drawings turn out the way you want them to at that moment, yet when you put it away and look at them again, they might have a little spark about them that feels just right. - Candice Sarah

If you can’t get out and draw, but want to practice people, draw them from a webcam!

P.S. Here’s how to opt into People Skills if you want to practice sketching humans!

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Do you know ? Surely you do, but if not, I can tell you she’s a world-famous picture book illustrator who gives BRILLIANT drawing advice. She’s sharing some of her top tips with us!

My favorite tip from Helen is practicing your “don’t talk to me vibes.”

Don’t talk to me vibes are perfect for:

• When you don’t want to be interrupted

• Not in the mood to chat with random strangers

• Feeling nervous about sketching in public

It’s helpful for all stages of your drawing-people-in-public journey!

Make sure to join Helen and friends for the Good Ship Illustration 2025 Planning Party on January 16 and “set excitin’ goals” with your Good ship Pals!

Sign up!

More tips from Helen:

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Tip: Look more at the people than at your paper and do not name the parts as you draw. Accuracy or finishing is not the end goal!

You are working with visual information only; words do not help. It’s not necessary to try to figure out anything logically, because all of the visual information is right there in front of your eyes. - Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

This helps record what you see vs. drawing what you know. Try to notice if you start talking to yourself or thinking the drawing isn’t working out. We aren’t trying to create finished art here.

Prompt: Draw from the live cam for 10 minutes using any material.

1. Mute the music. Trust me on this.

2. Slow the speed to 0.25 (or to your liking) using the gear icon.

3. Focus on speed and shape and getting down as many people as you can!

Reminder: This month is for practicing and building our visual libraries. If you’re making drawings you don’t like, that’s a GOOD thing. It means you’re learning! Speed and efficiency comes with consistent practice, I promise. ❤️

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1. Negative space - If that doesn’t help you get proportions right, move on to the next tip, which is…

2. Using what’s in front of me to measure and make marks accordingly.

   

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Drawing the shape quickly:

• ensures your figure fits on your page properly and you don’t decapitate or cut off your subject’s appendages!

• Helps you see proportions and scale of what’s in front of you.

• Prevents us from getting lost in the details.

This, along with setting parameters, solves a lot of drawing problems that are usually caused by overthinking.

Things to try

• Draw them in a grid or individual boxes.

• Take a few seconds to observe angles and negative space before starting the timer.

• For shorter times, draw smaller.

Your references are at the bottom of this page! Try getting their shape down in under one minute.

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Pencil or graphite will be my constant.

I’ve placed them EVERYWHERE, so I can quickly grab one when it’s time to practice. They’re in my drawing bag, near the sofa, and in a yellow container in my workspace. Simple and easily accessible!

Prompt: Set your parameters

Choose one thing you’ll use every time you sit down to practice people. I recommend a thing you:

• love to use or

• want to practice using?

Maybe you’re like and just got some awesome pastels. It doesn’t have to be something you’re super familiar with.

Need to sign up for the live practice sessions?

Sign up for each session here! You’ll get an email with the Zoom link and a reminder an hour before we start drawing.

What if I can’t attend a live session?

They’re recorded and added here!

What if I miss a day?

The posts will all populate here, so you can check out posts you missed

Here’s the post I mention in the video that got a nice response. I’m planning another bargain in adventure for late this month or next! I’ll be back tomorrow with a quick demo and references!

I can’t wait to hear what parameters you set for the month! Let me know in the comments!

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