The Orange Line of Action

 

3/17/21 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Excavators are back on the property I sketched a couple of weeks ago where a big landscaping project is under way. Sketching heavy machinery at work is similar to sketching active people. It’s about looking for the line of action, anticipating the motion, and capturing as much as possible of the gesture before it changes. When an excavator is moving dirt from a hole to a pile, the car body tends to be stationary, so I can work on that part with a bit more leisure than the part that is swiveling and digging. Also like people, an excavator tends to alternate between two actions repeatedly. (If you’ve ever sketched someone in a coffee shop, you know he will scratch his beard, tap his tablet, and scratch his beard again, over and over.)  

I missed sketching people in public during last week’s OneWeek 100 People challenge, but excavators are almost as much fun.