Still Quiet in the ‘Hood

 

2/18/21 Maple Leaf neighborhood

We’d seen this excavator, quietly waiting for some action, several times on our walks through the ‘hood, but the chilly temps we’ve been having kept me from stopping to sketch it. On my way home from errands one day, I drove by to see if it was still there. It was, still quietly waiting. I was happy that I had the car for shelter because it started raining a few minutes into the sketch.

Technical note: The June Gold colored leads in my Pentel Multi 8 are working out sufficiently in my ultra-minimalist sketch kit. The Multi 8, however, isn’t the most efficient tool. This sketch took only about 15 minutes, but changing the leads frequently with the eight-color (admittedly cool) dialing mechanism was tedious and time-consuming. With conventional colored pencils, I’m used to holding the colors I’m using with one hand while the other draws, and it’s easy to switch colors quickly. I didn’t realize how often I like to switch colors until I started using this. That’s the price of minimalism when I want color, though: Everything is a tradeoff.