Embrace the Pace: Construction Crews

The next few posts are all of “things that move too quickly to capture”. I happen to enjoy drawing stuff that moves, so I’ll share some thoughts that might help you attempt give it a shot, if you never have. ( and if you have tips to share, I’d love to hear from you!)

What helps me loosen up and work freely? I don’t bank on one sketch. That sounds counterintuitive, right, to have not-enough time and do more than one sketch? But when I’m working quickly, there’s a lot that might not work out: some of it, I’ll push further to see where it takes me, some I’ll abandon. ( I work in more than one book, usually) This method doesn’t make for beautiful sketchbooks I can flip through for one resolved sketch after another but a messy, sometimes unfinished set of spreads in a book is an exchange I’m more than happy to make.

This first sketch was at the end of a workday. I got to the scene just as the crew started packing up. I got a bit of sketching in, but the street was empty when I got this far…Ah well.

Three days later, I see the crew right outside my window, but only for a short little bit. Here are three sketches that happened in that time.

First this crew came around with some bigger vehicles. and I got the line drawing for this one done. (no time for a process shot, sorry!)

Then they left and these smaller vehicles came in for a bit, cones were set up , they did a bit of moving things around and were gone again.

This last sketch is as they loaded up and left.

I took mental color notes so all color is added as or after they left, but really it’s only the second piece I liked enough to push on with. The others? They live on in my books in the state in which I leave them.

The other thing all these sketches share is continuous-ish line drawing, because it lets me draw quickly and loosely. Give it a shot, find some construction-action to draw, and let me know how it goes!