Please Hold that Pose

Repetition. Repetition. They say, those who have gravitas, that when you do something over and over you establish a habit. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Repetition. Practice. Patience.It's the last that is often the most difficult.

Since signing up for an online Sketchbook course, I find myself dragging my feet. Today I drank a sparkling water and tried, surreptitiously, to draw people who were seated in the coffee house.

The man in the back—leaning his chair against the wall—read the newspaper. I selected him because he appeared to be so involved with his reading that he'd never notice me staring in his direction. I couldn't really see his face clearly because as he read he burrowed into the paper.


I selected a woman—deep in conversation with another woman— seemingly mesmerized by the the words spoken by her red haired companion. She'd never watch me attempting to use my pencil to determine the correct perspective. In the space of five minutes her expression changed from concern, to laughter, to grimace, to sadness. My sketch lacked an expression.

Then a man walked in and sat at a table five feet away. Within minutes he removed a cluster of items from a briefcase —nothing electronic. A legal tablet, a sheaf of papers, and two pencils covered his table. He did leave a small space for a coffee. At some point he must have sensed a pencil pursuing his contour, measuring where his ear was in reference to his shoulder. He looked up and I looked down.

This pursuit of keeping a Sketchbook Journal will require repetition, practice and lots of patience.