w/c 11th September: More sketching at mealtimes

The View at Breakfast 13th and 14th September 8am
pen and black ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I really like sketching when I'm sat at a table waiting to order or for the food to arrive or when I'm inbetween courses - or even while I'm actually eating!

However, the latter is reserved for when I'm on my own - such as at breakfast at the place where I was staying in Chatham. It had beautiful gardens which could be seen from the window of where I sat for breakfast. I did the pen and ink drawing the Wednesday morning and then used the coloured pencils on the Thursday morning. I really messed around with this one and used lots of different colours to try and get the effect of the foliage which was looking post summer if not quite autumn.

Dinner at Squires, Chatham 12.09.06. 9.30pm

On the Tuesday evening, Sally did a slideshow presentation for the workshop people and members of the Cape Cod Pastel Society - which was very well received - but it did mean that we eat late. This pen and ink drawing of the sketch at Squires - a very popular eating place in Chatham - was done inbetween ordering and the meal turning up. The waitress was very impressed! Being with other people (Hi Colleen and Jeanne!) means that you really do need to be speedy while sketching. However, it great when you're eating with a couple of other people (or more) as that means they have somebody to talk to while I'm sketching!

The big thing about sketching while you're eating is that you can get lots of practice at drawing people in natural situations and you have no time for detail because:

• you can't see it
• you don't need it
• and, most important of all, you don't have time. The chances are they'll get up and walk away before you've finished - but this does help to practice holding images in your memory!

I go for the big shapes and values (always remembering Charles Reid and his 'big blur') and then work backwards towards more subtle changes in shape, vale and colour and get down what I can while I can - and don't worry about the rest!

The weather on Cape Cod became dull and then rainy in the latter half of the week and I was really glad I'd made the effort get out sketching on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings. In the next post I'm back in Massachusetts

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