Toasted on both sides

I doubt this man on the beach saw me sketching him. I was quite a distance away. I think he was just a restless guy who moved around a lot, or else someone who wanted to make sure he had an even tan.

With backlit figures like this you can’t see much detail in the shadows, so my technique with quick sketches like this is just to look at where the highlights are. The rest of the figure is quite dark, and warm. The little white shapes I try to save are the slim, upward facing ones. That means I need a brush with a good point on it. I was lucky with this guy. He held each pose long enough for my quick pencil lines and then a few saturated washes with my brush. And then when he was toasted on both sides, he packed up his chair and went on home.