Out and About

Getting out and about with his sketchbook is Phil's real passion, capturing the hustle and bustle of a vibrant city scene, teeming with life and energy. He always has his trusty sketchbook and pen case at hand to tackle any sketch situation.

Here's what Phil has to say about his reportage work:

"A lot of my work tends to be simple line work with colour added. My go-to pen is the Edding 55, it's really good but super cheap. My line work is slightly wobbly, which is a combination of how I hold the book and also that I'm not trying to achieve a super straight line. When you go in with pen first, the line work won't be perfectly straight or even correct, especially when drawing curves, so the wobble gives you a little bit of leeway. The wobbly lines can be overdone, but it does give the sketch a certain charm and also a bit of looseness and vibrancy. A common misconception about urban sketching is that everything has to be perfect and you have to count all the windows and get everything accurate. That's not what you should be trying to do – I think you should be trying to interpret a scene in a different way."