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| Sketching in Starbucks. (Photo by DeLane Rosenau) |
This month’s theme of Artist Dates meshes well with one of my New Year’s resolutions: getting together with friends more. (My other resolutions are sleeping more, drinking more wine, and making more art.) A few days ago, I e-mailed my good friend and fellow fiber artist DeLane Rosenau, and asked if she’d like to share a cup of tea with me while I sketched. I just love multi-tasking! We met up at a local Starbucks, and while DeLane sipped her tea, and we chatted, I sketched her cup:
It
was very crowded in Starbucks, and I don’t think anyone (but DeLane)
noticed me working away. I don't sketch in public very often, but it’s
been my experience that people either ignore you, or they watch and are
extremely interested, and usually impressed. There’s nothing much to
fear, because you don’t know these people, and you probably will never
see them again.
This
is DeLane with her tea and my sketchbook. One advantage to taking a
friend on your Artist Date is that she or he is usually supportive about
your work (as
long as she/he is truly a friend!) and this can be very helpful if you
are feeling at all shy or out of place sketching in public.
Once
DeLane was properly caffeinated, we decided to move our Date to a local
antiques mall; I pulled up a comfy chair and my sketchbook, and DeLane
went shopping, swinging by every 20 minutes or so to see how the sketch
was coming along.
As a former journalist, I have a definite attraction to old typewriters. I love the sinuous lines of this Remington Quiet Riter.
Here I am working away amidst the antiques. Every so often someone would wander by and ask what I was doing, but mostly things were peaceful.
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| (Photo by DeLane Rosenau) |
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| (Photo by DeLane Rosenau) |
I have been trying to keep my small Moleskine sketchbook and my Lamy Safari fountain pen (my latest love) in my purse all the time. That way, I can sketch whenever I have a few minutes to kill. In this sketchbook, I am also trying to force myself to always work in black permanent ink, instead of pencil. The sketches are not as perfect as I usually demand of myself when working with pencil and eraser, but I think they have a lot of charm because of their imperfections.
Posts
This is such an inspiring concept. I must start carrying a sketch book and make sketch dates. Thanks Susan!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! I love to draw, and haven't done it in a long time, you have made me want to start up again.
ReplyDeleteMary
I hope you do, Mary and Nanette! If you need a daily dose of inspiration, check out The Sketchbook Challenge blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm chalking up the too many keys to not being a savant!
ReplyDeleteStill in love with your gifts...and of course "Red Rivers" ...I look at it every day....several times a day :)
Hugs,
Kelly
I'm not very good at sketching but I am trying. One day I only had a pen with my sketch book. There was a very nice composition right in front of me (I took a photo of it and it's now my profile picture). So I decided to go for it. I not only sketched it with my ballpoint pen, but I did it quickly without thinking too much about it. I loved how funky and whimsical the sketch turned out to be. So I'm going to routinely do sketches in ink on the fly for awhile.
ReplyDeleteBut it does help to have good artists like you post some of your sketches to see how much detail I want to add or leave out in my sketches. Thanks for your post.
Regina,
DeleteI think that as long as you are having fun sketching, and feel good about what you create – even if it is not perfect – then it is worth trying to find the time to sketch!