Big buttons

It was the buttons that caught my eye. Lined up with military precision, 

All work and no sketching...

A mate asked me the other day if I had stopped this. No I assured them, I just haven't had a lot of time lately.

"So you're not drawing at the moment ? "

Ha, on the contrary, it's because I am drawing too much. Plans, elevation and the lovely thing that is the detail. And funny but I don't think of this kind of drawing in the same way as sketching. But I shouldn't, because this is still about making sure the correct information is all there so others can do their part. And it is about the most information you can get down efficiently without distracting lines and extraneous stuff.

So they are both more alike than I would have considered.

It's just that a sketch takes moments, and a construction drawing can take days.

And there isn't a chippie at the end of the process, pointing an indignant finger at something and asking me what the fuck that was supposed to be.

Movement

This guy kept shifting about so I gave up trying to pin him down and just drew over and over until it felt right.

There is a bit of the girl he was talking to as well.  A sort of gestalt sketch, like a borg.

2 bags

Saw two women with the biggest bags. No doubt full of things they find essential, money, pefume, i-pads, other pads, drills, spare Amazonian warrior kit. Just in case.

All decked out in black leather with studs and zips and more bling than the Bank of England. ( Although come to think of it a church mouse has more bling than the Bank of England at this moment in time ) 

It's a wonder they don't do their backs in lugging them around.

You think I'm exaggerating, but I have just been working with a girl who kept the hugest canister of Butane gas in her bag. And a small can of deodorant.

Let's just pray she doesn't get them mixed up in a night club.

2 phones !

Hey, Lady, enough already !

She had one tucked to her ear in her left hand, and was dialing on the other with her right, then she transfered the current call to her right hand and kept an ear out for the other one as it rang.

No one is that busy, surely ?

And she was in the garden of the British Library to boot. Someone should have popped out and shushed her with a stern look.

Very pleased with how her legs and shoes turned out. As I am sure she is too.

Have I posted this one ?

Must have missed it. It was at the bottom of the sketch folder.

Gan awhey a metro centre

Of all the cultural places I got to see during my stay up North; Durham Cathedral, Hadrian's wall, the Baltic, the sea front building seen in Winslow Homer's Whitley bay watercolours.... By far my favorite place was the Gateshead Metro centre. All life was there, buying stuff. There was a shop for ever conceivable human need, places to have your feet nibbled by fish, bungee jumping for the reckless, chocolate fountains, giant gnomes and more phone accessory booths than a soul could ever need. I now know I am not a complete person until my phone has a bejeweled, fake fur jacket.

And the most comfy bucket seats to rest your consumerist arse in.

Sketched a guy explaining life to his wife in one.

Or at least explaining why he couldn't afford for her to have her feet nibbled by fish, one or the other.

Didn't get anywhere near enough sketching in whilst I was there, but now I am home I can at least get back into the rhythm of posting again.

And I have new drawing materials to play with, and an inclination to push the boundaries of this a bit more now.

About bloody time too.