Making a Sketch from a Picture - Top Cheat!

At the moment I am reading "Connecting Design to Stitch" by Sandra Meech. The book has some fantastic design and sketchbook exercises.

I tried out this one which helps you make a drawing from a photo. I used this picture of the Dubai spice souk taken by my husband. You can see that the picture is very complex and would be overwhelming to just copy as a sketch.

With this technique you draw the whole picture in small manageable sections at a time. First I cut some rectangles from the photo and stuck them into my sketchbook opposite the remaining piece with the holes in it. Then using the photo reference from the opposite page the picture is drawn back into the holes. Because the missing section is quite small and you also have the pieces around it, it is quite easy to pencil in the missing information.

I then took the idea in to book further by photocopying my finished drawings, cutting out the pieces and reassembling them into a complete sketch.

Of course I could easily and quickly get the same end result by simply tracing the picture, but by observing and drawing I have got to know my subject in much more detail than I ever would have by tracing. I'll definitely be using this technique again in the future, perhaps with pen and watercolour next time.