More Speed Sketching at Whole Foods

9/30/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Sailor pen, Canson Montval 140 lb. paper

Last winter I decided to get away from the portrait type of people sketches that I had grown comfortable with during my first year of sketching and challenged myself to sketch more complete bodies and the people’s context and environment. In other words, sketch more peopled urban sketches rather than collections of “floating heads.”

For the upcoming indoor-sketching season, I’m still going to do more of the same – complete figures in context – but I’m adding two new challenges: speed and movement. Last week at Whole Foods, I discovered that, because there’s no wi-fi, people don’t linger over their snacks and lunches as they do over coffee at most coffee shops. Instead of staring into their laptops like statues, Whole Foods’ patrons tend to come in small groups and actually have conversations as they eat – which means they move and turn their heads more.

9/30/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, 100 lb. paper

The top sketch took me nearly an hour to complete, but except for the young man in the foreground, all the other patrons changed several times. I had barely finished the guy on the right when he flipped his hood up and walked out. I’d just completed the face of the guy next to him when he, too, finished his lunch, so I had to borrow the details of the body of a different guy. But that’s the way it is with sketching people – it’s like playing Mr. Potato Head.

At 12 noon nearby Roosevelt High School must have dismissed for lunch, because suddenly Whole Foods’ café filled with teenagers. I knew these girls would be quick with their simultaneous eating, talking and texting. (Not only did the girl on the left have impossibly straight hair – she was wearing a skirt that was impossibly short.) I checked the time when they came in and when they left – they were done in 15 minutes flat! But I was up for the challenge – 15 minutes were all I needed.