I've been enjoying Marc Taro Holmes's Craftsy class, Sketching People in Motion, but I don't often get a chance to practice his techniques. I do, however, love to play tennis and watch A LOT of professional tennis players on tv and in tournaments in person, when I get the chance.
Today, I was watching the Citi Open on Tennis Channel and decided to get out my scribbler (3 x 5" homemade sketchbook) and test out my new water soluble Lamy black ink (in my Lamy Joy fountain pen) and my newest watercolor brushes from Rosemary & Co. and Escoda. Here are my attempts.
Monfils serving with Zverev hitting a 2 handed backhand behind him
Davis & Pegula hitting serves in watercolor
Pegula hitting a forehand in watercolor; Davis lining up a forehand in watersoluble ink
Pegula waiting to return a serve
I find that what is key to drawing people in motion is to develop my visual short term memory as the pose I want to capture lasts for only a split second and is repeated every 30 seconds or so per game. I will need to keep practicing - but, lucky for me, it's the U.S. summer hard court season with lots of tournaments culminating in the U.S. Open AND including the Olympics this year!
How do you practice sketching people in motion?