Top Pot for the Big Day

6/2/17 ink, water-soluble colored pencil, sticker

For the second year, I decided to celebrate National Donut Day yesterday with a sketch at Top Pot Doughnuts. With a huge donut atop its overhang and two palm trees growing in the outdoor dining area, it’s hard to resist (in more ways than one).

Unlike the flagship store downtown, which had a line out the door when I sketched there last year, the Wedgwood neighborhood store was probably only a little more crowded than usual. I saw several customers coming out loaded with boxed donuts, so celebrations were obviously taking place elsewhere. In addition, Top Pot was using the day to collect donations for Northwest Harvest food banks, so neighbors were going in with bags of groceries to drop off.

Of course, I went inside myself to get a donut – a sticky, gooey Bavarian cream. I took one bite before sketching it to give it greater realism, and once I got the basic shape drawn, my plan was to eat and sketch simultaneously. The only problem with that idea is that my hand became a sticky mess each time I took a bite. I had to simply draw quickly so that I could get back to what really matters on National Donut Day.

6/2/17 brush pen, gel pen, colored pencil