Make that 365 people...

...and two Toucans !

They were in the sketch book I was scanning at the weekend.

Why not ?

69 - a quick one.

Another quick sketch from the summer park day.

Any sapphic, numerical undertones are all resolutely in my head.

68 - laughing

Yesterday turned out a smashing day, the sun came out, and all that cold was ( temporarily, if the headlines are to be believed ? ) forgotten. That line from Colin McInnes.. can't remember it exactly and can't find the book, so apologies if misquoting. "One of those days the old whore London throws up..."

Sat near two girls who were doing that thing where you put your name into a website and it tells you what kind of a person you are. 'All your name ?' one asked, 'just your first name' her friend said.

Sketched the friend - whose name I will never know - ...

...as she laughed as Natalie read aloud her name's response.

Funnily enough another friend was using this same web site two days ago, so it is obviously current. Which just goes to show how small the world really is. Or we are. Or, in our innocence, is presumed to be.

There, two misquotes in one posting. Gotta be impressed.

67

Always been a big fan of Paul Hogarth's work. Those little character studies he does with a few strokes of watercolour. Here is my own attempt. Nowhere near as economical.

Drawn down Portobello road market on a friday morning. always the better day to go. Less Tourists, more tatt.

66

Only 300 to go now. Panic. it's not a leap year is it ? No, Good. Can't have the whole scheme messed up by something as insignificant as the Roman Calender.

So who shall I dig out today ?

Perfect. Drew this guy whilst in the Starbucks on Shaftsbury Avenue with a friend ages ago. A quick sketch, but like the arm stretching back over his head.

Am meeting the same friend again today, for a coffee, although not here... There...

Whatever.

64, 65, girl in park

One of those hot, still sundays at the beginning of summer, when the trees still look fresh and the grass hasn't been dried and scuffed to nothing.

Went and sat in my local park to read and sketch. 'The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay' in the shade of a group of massive Lime trees.

Loads of people, languid in the heat, lazing around in groups or on their own. Friends agreeing to meet, waving to attract each others attention, shading their eyes... is that them ? Over there ? Friends of friends getting introduced and assessed. Spending the day with strangers because of one person. Enduring the scrutiny, finding common ground.

Sketched this girl twice.

People tend to have two or three positions at most, that they cycle through as they talk. Leaning back, leaning forward, legs crossed, legs out straight. If you miss them at one stance, and you have the time to wait, you will catch them back in that position in a while.

Elbows hatched with the criss-cross of grass, florescent green aphids catching in hair, being switched away by others.

A good day.

63 - Louvre, Paris

Was standing in the entrance pyramid to the Louvre Museum, waiting by the spiral staircase ( I would seem to do a lot of waiting, don't I ? Can't remember if I was waiting while my friend went to the loo, or waiting for them to actually turn up at all ) anyway... this Guy was leaning over the balcony from the Cafe, talking to some people below, mates of his.

I obviously started with the neck of his sweatshirt, and when I had got round his head the two overlapped. But with the railing line cutting through his hand as well I don't mind.

The thing I most remember about this was, as I was resting the sketch book on the railing on my side of the spiral staircase, the tread of the visitors on the stairs made my book vibrate, a small, but clear rhythm that grew and faded as they went up and down and really annoyed me as it made my hand unsteady. Look at his nose for evidence.

I can usually zone that kind of thing out, but there was something heartbeatish and insistent about it that was actually a bit disturbing.

I mean that as in vital internal organ, not cosy period Cop show.

Although I could argue that that was just as disturbing as well.