Getting My Coffee Shop Mojo Back

10/22/12 Diamine Grey ink, Zig brush markers, Hand Book

Sunday’s sketchcrawl was a stroke of weather luck; shortly after I got home that day, it started raining (sleeting, actually!), and it hasn’t stopped since. Needing a dry place to sketch, I headed for the Green Lake Zoka.

 

(Last spring when I first started this blog, I routinely referred to an unnamed coffee shop as the location for many sketches. Fairly new to sketching in public, I was paranoid that if I named the location in my blog, the patrons I’d been sketching would be outraged, and I’d eventually be banned from my favorite coffee shop. Now that I’ve been sketching for more than a year, I realize that no one cares who or what I sketch, so I’m fine with blatantly naming the place. In fact, I’m even giving them a plug to express my thanks for the many hours I occupy their tables. Thanks, Zoka, for the luscious scones and mochas!)

 

10/22/12 Diamine Grey, Zig marker, Sketchbook Project

After a few head sketches, I realized that I’ve lost my coffee shop sketching mojo. All those urban sketches that filled my sketchbooks during the summer improved my skills with drawing architecture and trees. And all the musical performers I sketched at farmer’s markets helped me with figure proportions and action. But what happened to the portraits I used to lithely and stealthily put down on paper between sips of joe?

 

It’s like I keep saying: It’s all about practice. If you don’t, you get rusty. And as I’ve also noted before, the frustrating part is that progress is not progressive. Or maybe I have a selective memory, and my portrait sketches were never as lithe as I recall. No matter – there’s a long winter ahead, and plenty of time to practice.

10/22/12 Diamine Grey ink, Zig brush marker, Hand Book sketchbook