I decided to try my hand at sketching from TV. I guess this is easier than real life in the sense that you can stare at the person on the screen (in real life you often can't do that if they don't know you are sketching them). But on the other hand, when sketching from tv, you often only have 10-15 seconds to get a likeness.
The person being interviewed is at the top, and the interviewer is at the bottom of the page. I have to admit, it involved a couple of rewindings to get a longer view of the people! But I am pretty happy with the likenesses, given it is my first go at tv sketching.
I do feel they have more vitality than sketches done from a still photo. Although it is harder to do, I can see how a better likeness can be taken from a moving subject than from a photo: in real life, you can spot what a person's usual expression is because their face keeps returning to that expression, and it is that expression that you sketch. But I think a sketch still has to stand on its own as a good sketch or likeness. I don't think the fact of having done a sketch from real life makes a bad sketch any better to look at. So, lots of practice ahead...
The ones below are the ten bad sketches it took me to sketch the interviewer guy at the bottom of the above page. I think sketching someone so quickly involves spotting immediately what makes someone's unique face recognisable. In his case, it was the shape of his eyes, eyebrows, and nose, and it took me about ten dodgy sketches to spot that fact. Also, when sketching this fast, I am still trying to figure out whether to sketch the hair and features first and then the shape of the face, or to do it the other way around.
The previous awful attempts...
A gratuitous photo of Rangitikei Gorge, taken from the train, central North Island, New Zealand
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