Storytelling Sketches

I like to think of every sketch as a story. Not always a big one, with a grand plot and story arc. Stories can be quiet little everyday things tucked into bigger pieces.  Like this Saturday morning sketch at Social Policy in downtown San Jose. Just another cafe sketch…

Or maybe you can imagine the conversation they’re having as they buy their coffee?

Or what’s brewing in this guy’s mind as he sits here?

And then there’s more active, action-packed stories. Middle school orchestra and band performances at a concert called ‘Megafestival of Awesomeness’. (That’s what you get when you let middle schoolers come up with a name for their concert.)

I love people-stories, but they’re not all I’m interested in. I’ve sketched vintage signs around San Jose for a while now. Here’s a recent one. I’m a sucker for a great vintage arrow, and while this one has very few working bulbs left, it still has quite a presence. The signs in San Jose tell a quiet story: they’re the last remnants (and disappearing fast), of a different place than the city is now. They have a stoicism and a beauty, and they hold stories and changes I’ll never know of.