There’s lots of ways to paint figures, and one that I’ve been exploring recently is painting what some artists call “carrot people” – which is a suggestion of a figure with not too much detail. This type of figure drawing is ideal when you want to add people to scene. Where the building or the surrounding area is the focus and not the people.
The human eye and brain is a marvellous thing. When you leave details out, the observer fills them in. So more often than not, following the mantra of less-is-more will actually improve your sketch.
Video Tutorial for painting Carrot People Figures
This ten minute video from Paul Apps gives a great introduction to painting figures. Even though the process is simple, it’s really effective. His technique is based around using multiple colours and using a wet on wet approach so that the colours bleed together.
Give it a go and see how you do. And don’t forget the shadows. They’re effective for anchoring people to the page so they don’t look like they’re floating in space.
