I have several sketches I’ve done these past weeks that all seem to pertain to “family life”. You have to have fresh eyes to sometimes see the humor and interest in sketching people and places around you. For instance…. a gas pump.
While moving my daughter home from college, we stopped at a gas station to fill up. I got out my sketch book, determined to sketch something very quickly. I saw a green and yellow diesel pump beside a red trash can. In the time my hubby filled the tank, I had done a quick sketch, which I painted in later…
I recently went to a local nursery to look for ornamental grass. I left empty-handed and sat in the car looking out into the greenhouse area. I observed one of the owner’s family dogs sitting outside the greenhouse. I had noticed this dog and another one laying on the ground, sleeping peacefully in the sun. I sketched the dog quickly and it got up and left. I added the building, and also a blue Porta-Potty. Finally, I observed a man looking at yard statues by the pots, so I added him in too. It’s a sketch with a lot of layers!
Last weekend I was with a friend at a local park. We were sketching, and I watched a grandfather with his two small grandsons. One was obviously the big brother– he was busy reeling in a fish on his fishing pole. The little brother (in red), was kneeling down, picking up things off the sand, and chucking them into the water. The grandpa sat peacefully watching them both. It was a serene scene, so I quickly sketched all the figures and added color after that.
My last two sketches were of my family. My husband got the tricky job of digging holes in dry rocky soil to instill three trellises in my yard. A job that was laborious and not that fun, compounded by the fact he had already been pulling out a dead lilac bush all morning. He humored me though, and took on the sweaty job, and I couldn’t help but sketch him quickly when he was digging holes!
My adult son, who had also helped with the lilac bush, decided manual labor was too much for his delicate frame, so he flopped down on a cushy bean-bag wanna-be chair, straight from my daughter’s dorm room. Within minutes, he was sprawled out in the sunlight on the porch, and fell asleep. It was such an awkward-looking position…I couldn’t resist a sketch!
Family life, no matter where you are, is often amusing and interesting. You just have to look around a little bit and see the sketches right before your very eyes!