I visit my brother and family almost weekly. Sometimes, I have a dedicated sketching session with them, and I’m always trying new ways of getting them to interact with my sketchbook (see more here). But on most visits, something else is happening: the kids are running around, and I’m catching up with my brother and sister-in-law.

And I still try to sneak in a sketch to record the visit.

When I do these types of sketches I have to be super quick as I never know when Aunty Liz will be needed to be part of another activity. I typically draw directly  in ink (using my fude pen), embracing any mistakes and wonkiness. If one of the children is looking over my shoulder I’ll talk through my mistakes saying something like “Oops, that’s not quite right, but it’s okay.”

By the way, they have their own version of my famous mantra, “Embrace the wonkiness”. They say to each other, “It’s not bad; it’s just wonky!”

If possible, I like to add colour at the time and normally reach for my watercolour pencils (WCP).

If I have time, I might get my watercolour paints out, but I’m normally sitting on a sofa when doing these types of sketches, so the painting can be a little awkward when a child suddenly joins me on the sofa at any minute. (Joins = jumps on the sofa or tries to sit on my lap or manages to bump into me.)

So I often add a bit of paint later once I’m back home.

But sometimes I’m not sure whether to leave the sketch ‘dry’ or add paint to it.

I could have easily left these sketches of the kids robots (part of a school project) dry. In fact my intention at the time was to keep it dry, but I decided to add paint so you could see the difference.

Note: If you don’t already know, I much prefer to add watercolour over WCP rather than just water, as it maintains the intensity of colour and allows me to sometimes slightly adjust the hue.

On the other hand, when I added WCPs to this sketch of my nephew’s tool kit, my intention was to paint over the top, so my WCP stage was less involved.

Sketching around children involves quick thinking and reflex actions!