When I’m uninspired, not motivated, or just plain lazy, I know I can still drag myself over to my local coffee shop, sketchbook in hand. That’s super useful, because back-from-India ( or back form any travles, really) means I face the tough task of getting back to drawing my everyday. I go easy on myself and draw just about anything: little portraits, quick sketches, whatever. The page below is my first pen-to-paper moment when I got back .
These next few sketches are all from one day when I was in the mood to just keep my hand moving, even when I was drawing variations on the same scene.
Lunch sketches from a couple of weeks ago, and a now-rare sketch of one of my kids. I used to draw both kids so much, but one is now at university and the other is usually not at home or in his room. So I’m glad I got a quick capture on this day.
I posted this next set of sketches on Instagram earlier this week and whined a bit about how too many cafes now serve their coffee in disposable cups even when it’s not to-go. And many of you reminded me that cafes ( especially here in California) are struggling to keep employees and my best solution might be to take along my own mug. Thank you!
This last sketch is a reminder to sketch, even if all you have is a minute or two. I like something about this one: perhaps it’s just that the very primitive line captures the slouched and hunched poses of these two teens.
Are you joining next week’s One Week 100 People challenge? Unless you’ve set aside the whole day to work on your sketches, it might be a good idea to have some quick-sketching techniques up your sleeve!
And if you want to get off to a quick start, just join my substack newsletter for a link to join in a free session drawing people on Monday morning.
Sketch Away: Travels with my sketchbook 