Cafe Sketches – 9th September 2006

Something changed today.

Why, I’m not entirely sure, but today I let go. I stopped tryingto produce little portraits and I just – sketched.

In all my previous cafe trips, I’ve done one drawing per page, and each one has been anattempt at a complete, albeit quick drawing. Many, many times I’ve told myself that Ishouldn’t be trying to do that, that these trips to the cafe are just practice, nothing more,nothing less. But despite my best intentions, I’ve found myself doing each drawing as if itwas a little portrait, worrying about how good a likeness I get. But not today.

Instead of one drawing per page, today I just filled each page and then moved onto thenext one. Some of today’s drawings took less than a minute, and many are not complete figures,just small parts of people, the parts that caught my eye. putting a few little sketcheson each page seems to have released me from the tendency to draw portraits, it liberatedme in some way from worrying about how well the drawings turned out. Today, I was justpracticing.

Before I did anything else today, I wrote “permission to fail” across the top of thefirst page, just to remind myself. I was giving myself permission to just draw, regardless of thequality of the finished drawing. The results don’t matter. All that does matter is that I got tothe cafe and did some drawing.

So no write ups today, just pictures. Make of them what you will.

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