On Thanksgiving evening, I spent some time with a good friend I haven’t seen for awhile. We drank coffee and talked for hours. While my friend worked on bead crochet, I drew. In the drawing below, I was trying to capture her hands in the position of doing beadwork.

Here’s another drawing I did (using watercolor pencils) while we sat and talked:

I stopped at Whole Foods yesterday for coffee. In the cafe area, I had to approach a stranger and ask to share her table because the place was full. She seemed surprised but pleased and we chatted a bit. They’ve installed a large counter facing the window and will put stools for people to sit and look out at…the parking lot. The young man in the sketch was working at one of those computer terminals where you apply for a job. The lady with the leopard knit beret sat at a nearby table.

This afternoon I had some time to kill so I went to Borders at State and Randolph. From the third floor there’s a nice view of the Chicago Theater and I did a little sketch of the marquee.

For a really nice monoprint, see Belinda del Pesco’s entry featuring a print she made that was inspired by a photo taken at the recent New York sketch crawl. After seeing Belinda’s work, I decided to try a monoprint. I had done monoprints on fabric before, but not on paper. I drew with wet Caran D’ache watercolor crayons on a plexiglass plate, then laid a sheet of paper on it and rubbed with my hand. After I pulled the print from the plate, I went over it with the crayons to add detail to certain areas, especially the eyes.