urban sketching, cont.

My recent observational/urban sketching jag has coincided with a three-week period of working full remote. Yesterday, I brought R to a dentist appointment. I was like OH HYPE TIME TO DRAW STUFF. Debuting my cool new urban sketching kit: a micron in my pocket and my slim Strathmore 6x8 (instead of lugging around my hardcover Canson 9x12). (The Strathmore was originally just for drawing with BB, but I’m repurposing it for all sketching on the go.)

…Then I didn’t draw all that much. Turns out it’s hard to draw while going places and doing things. During the actual appointment, I went to Starbucks, so that was cool; I drew the pickup counter, and a very chopped sketch of a guy on his phone who moved too much for me to draw properly (SKILL ISSUE).

The pickup counter was only semi-chopped. I posted it in the art server. “hmm not every observational sketch can be a winner. Can anyone tell what this is?”

Vinc: “I can tell it’s from inside a house, but not sure which room.”

OkaPKchu: “My first thought was dressing room? Mirror, stacks of towels maybe?”

flailingfrog: “It’s a pickup counter at a fast food place? Doesn’t look quite fast food. Reminds me of coffee places? Or like my soda shop.” yeeesss someone got it, visual communication has occurred

After the appointment, we went to R’s favorite hole-in-the-wall kabob place for lunch, then walked to the train station and took the train home. I didn’t draw during any of that…I could’ve drawn on the train, but I was facing the end of the car and also half-napping in the sun.

Circling back to the random guy I tried drawing at Starbucks: I watched a video by an urban sketch artist who challenged himself to sketch 100 people in a day. Special attention on “how does this guy deal with people moving?” This happened a lot. Like, he’d draw part of the head and a couple lines of torso, and then another person would move in front and block his view, and then the og person would leave. He still finished every drawing. 100 fullbodies.

My surmise is that (1) he has strong visual memory and (2) he’s good at figure drawing, so he can fill in gaps. (Unlike me, where the person moves and I have no idea how to proceed.) It really is a practice issue. You know the adage, train your brain for minutes a day. I rarely see people due to working from home…maybe I should hang out at the station coffeehouse. Classic artist hangout.