Unfinished Business

1/9/17 brush pen, white colored pencil, gel pen

In coffee shops, I have two kinds of “victims”: the ones staring nearly motionlessly into screens for minutes on end (possibly hours if the wi-fi is unlimited), and the ones who are there to grab and go. Early yesterday at the Green Lake Starbucks, I encountered more of the latter kind – people standing in line for only a moment and constantly in motion.

1/9/17 brush pen, white colored
pencil

I can usually tell when they aren’t going to stay long even when they sit – they don’t bother taking off their coats, or they might pull out a phone but not a laptop. Instead of getting frustrated when they leave me with unfinished sketches, I use these short-term victims as an opportunity to study how few lines – and which lines – I need to make to convey the essence of the person. This is different from simply sketching as quickly as possible, which I do most of the time with people anyway. In the second or two before I put brush pen to page, I think about what I need to include – the hat? The hair? The posture? – and what can be left unstated.

Here are four people who left before I could finish them. Do you think I got enough lines – and the right ones – to convey their essence? Tomorrow I’ll show you a couple people who stuck around a little longer. (The guy in the puffy jacket ended up staying a while after all, so you’ll see him again.)

1/9/17 brush pen, white colored pencil

1/9/17 brush pen