Back to Urban Sketching

I am slowly making my way back to urban sketching. And I don’t mean the sort of urban sketching where I only draw at home or from my car. And I’ve been surprised by how hard it is to get back to it after such a long break. From someone who doesn’t think twice about standing anywhere and drawing, I’ve become tentative about it. I love it, but it’s strange how much a break has put me out of practice.

The only way back to being comfortable for me is to just go sketch a few times I suppose. This is outside Greenlee’s Bakery on the Alameda in downtown San Jose. I had my coffee and masked cookie and sketched people at outdoor tables enjoying some time in the sun.

These next sets of vignettes are outside Whole Foods watching people do their groceries and Uber and Lyft drivers pick up carts full of online orders for delivery.

I’ll be trying to get out more and sketch on location in the next few weeks, always masked and socially distanced, of course. It’s important to me to record life in these times in my sketches.