Drawing in the Grocery Store

For a recent bout of drawing in public, I decided to draw people in the local giant grocery store while the spouse did the shopping. 

I thought I could sit quietly in a food court corner, unobtrusive and all, but turns out the food court was remodeled and is gone! 

So, after debating whether to stand by the bananas and draw people in the fruit section, which felt creepy to me, I sat on what we call "the man bench"--basically the place where guys sit and wait while their wives shop. I've never ever seen a female sitting on one of these benches. They are at the end of the checkout lanes. 

Anyhow, wedged between the penny horse and the CoinStar change collection machine, I sat for a good half hour with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and fast sketched people as they checked out with their stuff.

First of all, everyone was facing me directly. So I really didn't like staring to study and draw them. I did take a deep breath and remind myself that if someone asked me to leave or stop, I would just close my book, say sorry, and walk away.

But as long as no one asked me to stop, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to practice my visual memory. Glance, memorize one thing, dash it down, repeat.

This was hard work! Brain exercise! I just filled the page with people--trying to capture body shapes and some different angles, as well as people of different ages.

I had a great time and feel like I learned a lot more about the PBBP and what it can do with this sort of drawing in particular.

I want to continue to work on my visual memory and developing my skills with this tool.  Perhaps a return visit to "the man bench" is in order!