Chatter and Hands

11/19/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

A woman at the Wedgwood neighborhood Starbucks was deeply engrossed in her book, but she couldn’t seem to get comfortable because she kept changing positions. Often she would hold the book up directly in front of her face, obstructing my view. Frustrated at first, I became fascinated by the many positions her hands took in holding the book and decided to make some small studies of her hands (still one of the hardest parts of the human body for me to draw – and often it’s a part that gets hidden during life drawing sessions).

11/19/13 Velvet Black ink, Canson XL paper

Eventually she settled into one position long enough for me to sketch her face. Just then, four teenage girls suddenly burst into Starbucks, a flurry of giggles and fast chattering. They climbed into the two stuffed chairs directly across from me (seated two per chair, endlessly amused by their creative seating arrangement), and although they were quite close, I was invisible to them. Fortunately, they did not block my sketch view. As engaged as I was in the sketch, I found myself equally engaged in their mile-a-minute conversation. (I use the term “conversation” loosely, since that implies that one person talks while the others listen.) In fact, their chatter became the soundtrack of my sketch.