This post was originally published on January 23, 2017 during my site transition.
Above: A sketch at Cecil’s of an older woman finishing her meal, pen (a drying out Sakura Pigma Professional Brush Pen Fine Brush) and watercolor in an A6 (4.1 x 5. 8 inch or so) Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketchbook that I carry in my purse at all times. (I was going to draw in the background paneling, hence the marks on the wall behind, but hey, I’m just getting well and couldn’t be bothered.) Notice who is “sketch bombing” my photo at the right! That’s one way to deal with the problem that is Dick’s eyebrows! I haven’t had to sketch “on my inhaler” for ages. I hate the way it makes my hand shake, but I love how it lets me not care—I wanted to get those hands in—all gnarled from arthritis. And the top of her hair really was bright red, with dark blue-brown below.
While I was still too sick to go out on my birthday, I did get out this weekend for the first time in a month. Dick took me to Cecil’s Deli, where I always enjoy the French Toast Turkey Club. (Pastrami and turkey on bread that’s actually FRENCH TOAST; with Thousand Island Dressing. You eat it with a fork of course.) I went wild—I also had one potato latke and an orange Buddy’s. (By the time we got to Wet Paint—so I could run in and pick up some paint they had on hold—I was already high on the sugar from the Buddy’s!)
What a first day to get out—everywhere I looked people were winding down after the Women’s March at the Capitol. (The St. Paul Paper said 60,000 people participated, MPR said 100,000, others said over 90,000. All I know is there were people everywhere exercising their right to peaceful assembly.) And many wore a knitted pussy-hats. See my second sketch.
Left: I barely had time to sketch the contour and slap some paint down before my lunch arrived—but I wanted to be sure to get one pink hat in my sketch book on the day of the Women’s March. Pen and watercolor in the same Nostalgie Sketchbook.
A normally crowded restaurant seemed to my eyes, coming into the light after being in the studio cave (I don’t work in natural light, the blinds are always shut so that I can work in consistent lighting—and boy is it bright in here) seemed teeming with life. And everyone was beautiful.
I wanted to sketch everyone, but people came and went and I didn’t get to everyone—and of course I had to rush my sketches because I needed to eat that meal I mentioned above. I’m not one to let my food get cold!
I described lunch at the deli to a friend as an explosion of faces. I didn’t realize how face-deprived I’d been. It will be awhile still before I’m out and about regularly, but I know that I’ll be taking time to savor all those faces. And snow piles—which are melting.
Dick (laughing): You’re the only one I know who likes the dirty snow piles as much as the new, fresh, white ones.
Roz: Well look, they have melted into all sorts of interesting shapes for drawing.
I pointed as we drove past “the head of a carousel horse” emerging from atop one grimy pile. Across the street from it was a castle with crenelated turrets.
Roz: And besides, what’s not to like—it means that the temperatures are getting warm again—soon it will be time to ride my bike outside once more! Nothing is better than that! At this point a white snow pile means the return to the whole “deicing” process.
I hope you can all get out this week and sketch in a sea of faces.
You can read about what I think about the Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketchbook and what I’ve been sketching and painting in these sketchbooks by using the category list to find those three words! Or go right to my main review here.
