Flag waving.

Had to go and have a look. I love my city, and when it scrubs up and puts on a show like that it would have been churlish not to go see.

Did several sketches, but just wanted one that caught it all.

Flag waving can serve many purposes, not always for the good. But yesterday's red, white and blue was nothing but open hearted.

In my opinion.

This guy was interviewed on BBC London News as well, saying he was just enjoying the opportunity to be patriotic, so I wasn't the only person who spotted him.

Two blokes on a train.

Am starting to worry that my subjects are getting a bit samey. Need to find some new sketching arenas.

Because people on trains.. well I am not being challenged much at the moment. The runners made me think to find newer situations to sketch people in. Just need to think where.

In the mean time...

...blokes on trains.

Happy Easter

And beautiful and sunny with it, How rare is that ?

This girl was fast asleep on the train the other day. Not exactly Eastery, but maybe, just ,maybe, she was dreaming of chocolate.

I can get way with that as a link, can't I ?

Have a good one.

I'm a singer in a band.

One last sketch of the Cuban domino players.

The singer again, sitting out a game.

Cuban rescue.

Sketched this woman in her blue D&G knock off top whilst we sat in a small park dominated by a statue of Cervantes.

And then, later on, as we were being accosted by a bloke wanting us to give him money, there she was again, sitting on a wall outside the National Cuban Art Gallery. And I said hello, and she smiled back, and then told the bloke to leave us alone.

Or at least that is how I am interpreting that situation.

fidget rejects.

Wow, yesterday's fidget post really struck a chord.

Thought I would share some of the (better) reject pages, where I would just get a few lines down and they would shift and alter their position so much that I had to turn the page and start anew.

She would not sit still ! And I can draw fast if I need to.

And this guy... don't get me started. Never got a good one of him at all. Phone... fidget... music... tug at sweater sleeves... check e-mail... rub head...

Maybe my sketching was making him nervous ?

fidget

Some people just can't sit still. Sat by two of the most fidgety people ever. Wasted pages on them, just got a few lines down and off they went, fiddling with phones, looking out the windows, doing this, doing that.

Just calm down please.

More runners.

Marathon revisited.

Played with the blur tool in Photoshop.

Marathon.

It was the London Marathon yesterday. And I have never sketched it...

Found that the more you tried to pin down the runners' pose the more they were impossible to see. Especially the legs. I needed Muybridge to slow them down.

Girls.

Gossiping on a sunday.

International Womens' Day

After a salsa lesson that was more stressful and sweaty than syncopated we sat, dazed, and watched the Cuban International Womens' Day shindig.  Everyone piled into the Casa for dancing, drinking and lurid coloured cake.  A young woman ran around as a sort of vajazzled swan, and rum and coke got spilt with abandon. It was like a bit like a lock in at your local, if your local had bougainvillea growing from the ceiling, and couples dry humping each other as entertainment.

Favorite sketch from that day, two women sharing one chair.

Beauty is often right in front of you.

Hey, wake up. We're there.

This couple slept so soundly on the plane they were in danger of doing the return trip too.

( Note to self - stop sketching people in positions that look like they might, just might, be having oral sex. )

Concerned Concierge

This guy stood at his building's door frowning at something happening down the street.

Couldn't see what he was looking at, but liked how he looked.

That's a lot of looking. Happens everyday.

Santa Clara

Santa Clara on a sunday was a party town. ( mind you, I think EVERYWHERE EVERYDAY was a party town, from what I saw. )

Two sketches of a couple chilling in the main square.

I liked how they were sitting.

Not entirely sure what his hand was up to, but I'm sure it was perfectly innocent. 

More Domino players.

From the same group, as they shuffled around and took turns playing and goading each other.

This guy turned out to be the singer in the band, and then turned up the next day in a different band as well.  Pleased with his knuckles, which I'm sure he would be glad to know.

And still they played on.

Seriously, my friend...

What's with the hair ?

Dominoes

Spent a while sketching a group of guys ( who later turned out to be a band !!! ) killing time playing dominos.

They played with such energy and swearing. Maybe whole lives were at stake.

We need more dominoes here. 

Neckerchief

That doesn't look right . Is that right ? Neckerchief ? Looks wrong to me. Hmmm. says it's right.

Too old-fashioned a word. Not used to seeing it.

Anyway...

One of the (many) bands that played for us wore these round their necks. Liked them more than the music.

What can I say ? I'm English. I'm genetically engineered to dig up potatoes and fry them, not to swing my hips to syncopated rhythms.

If music be the food of love...

...give it a rest for a bit.

Every time you sat down to eat or drink anything, a band popped up to belt out their version of Chan Chan, swiftly followed by the chance to buy their ( seriously dodgy graphics ) CD.

By the end we were literally pleading with them not to play.

Sketched a few of them. This is my favorite. Like his fingers. Got them wrong several times, but the accumulated effect is sort of right.

Snores on a plane

Flew back with the Cuban mmmmnnnnmmmmnn team. Mmmmnnnmmmnn because I couldn't work out what sport they were actually involved in, but they all had matching tracksuits and bags, and an archetypal burly coach to chivvy them on en masse.

Two of them fell asleep in the seats next to me. One had his head up against the back of the seat in front of him.

What ever sport it was, I'll wager he was going to have one heck of a stiff neck to deal with later. 

Stretch it out.

Three x blokes sitting, drinking.

Still on the veranda.

Two blokes sat with their beers, sketched them three times.

Like how the first bloke gets more elongated in each sketch.

If I carried on maybe he would have stretched out of all existence, like the bad bloke at the end of 'Ghost'.

More they lied.

Two more sketches of the couple from yesterday.

I think this is a better one of the bloke, doesn't make him look quite so old.

And I love how the fingers in the guide book she was reading worked out here.

It was the Lonely Planet guide to Cuba. EVERYONE seemed to have a copy. 

No wonder our paths crossed twice in one day.