Your sketches don’t need to be devoid of life. Cars, shoppers, participants, re-enactors and performers all add a lot. It needn’t be daunting, and you don’t have to strictly stick with portraits.
Practice sketching people in public places. It’s not necessary to make your sketches recognizable as any particular person. In fact, it’s probably best not to. As stated before, you can sketch when people aren’t watching; wear sunglasses or just glance, don’t stare. Work fast, if you need to. Sketch from a distance or from the back, just going for gesture or pose. Simplify and remember to have fun!
Nina Johansson adds the simplest of human shapes to her urban sketch, but notice how it brings the scene to life.
I used a waterbrush loaded with diluted ink for this exercise, keeping it very simple.
Draw fellow sketchers for some wonderful practice—they’re usually more open to it. This is Vicky Williamson at a sketchcrawl.