These past weeks, I have been driving around my community to look for sketch subjects. As I live in the suburbs, I find that there aren’t many historic houses to sketch, but there are still signs of the ‘burbs. One of those signs seems like constant construction. I don’t have to go far to find construction subjects, and I like sketching big yellow vehicles, cranes, and half-built buildings.
I have seen several buildings in my community that are being built and on their sides is some type of purple paper, I’m thinking it’s insulation or tar paper, or something. But I like the color purple. I sketched this building, and workmen were on the top of it, and a huge crane was to the right of it, swinging around (I didn’t sketch that part).
One snowy day (yes, it’s already snowing here), I was driving around and came upon the local Trader Joe’s. I noticed bright red canopies outside the store, and I pulled into a parking spot to check it out. I sketched in my car with snow coming down, as piles of pumpkins in large bins were outside the doors, and masked customers stood in a long line under red canopies to get into the store. The juxtaposition between Halloween pumpkins for sale and white snow piling up on the canopies were such fun to sketch!
Here is the finished sketch….
On another day, I sketched a local cafe, and outside the doors were two Peanuts character statues, Lucy and Linus. Linus was dressed in a Superman costume and Lucy was a snow-boarder. They were fun to sketch and I allowed the doors to be a little wonky as well!
What I love about urban sketching is that no matter where you live, there are always things to sketch!