What would you do if you had six hours to kill? Six hours of uninterrupted time with not a single obligation pressing in on you. Well, that’s the situation I found myself in a few days ago, and I took it as an opportunity to SKETCH!
My husband was having a small medical procedure done in Pittsburgh early one morning, and I needed to drive him home in the afternoon. I dropped him off at 6:30 am and found myself with an entire morning stretching ahead of me. So many possibilities! I could go to Carnegie Museum and look at art, or sketch in the Natural History Museum, or I could see the spring flower show at Phipps Conservatory. But they wouldn’t be open for hours. Hmmm, what’s open early? Coffee shops and…Whole Foods!
Every time I’ve ever walked through the produce section of a Whole Foods store, I’ve thought to myself, “Some day I’m going to come here and sketch!” It’s all so beautiful! The wild variety of colors, textures, and shapes all scream, “PAINT ME!”
So I did just that! I was waiting at the door when the store opened at 7 am, armed with pencil, pen, and paint.
I first headed to the café where I could sit at a table to draw the boxes for a gridded page. With a rough layout penciled in, I was ready to start drawing. (Hint: Don’t ink your grid lines until after you’ve filled the boxes. This will give you the option to extend a drawing across the edge of the box.)
I started off with my sketchbook perched on top of my purse in the grocery cart. First I drew the tangerines, then moved onto the asparagus which was the perfect shape to fill one of the vertical boxes. A Sailor Fude fountain pen with 55° nib was my tool of choice.
Shoppers were beginning to come into the store, and store workers were busy filling online grocery orders, but no one seemed to be paying the slightest attention to me.
About that time, I realized two things: 1) I could take the vegetables I was planning to buy back to a café table and sit comfortably to sketch, rather than standing awkwardly (and conspicuously) among the veggies, and 2) I needed to think about color distribution when I was selecting which items to include in my sketch. It wouldn’t do to have two orange things next to each other, or have an overwhelming amount of a single color, like green.
So I began to tailor my selections to fruits and vegetables that resonated with me but also had colors which would work well with what I’d already drawn on the page.
It was so much easier and more relaxing sitting at a table in the café, sipping a nice, hot cappuccino while I was drawing, rather than standing in an aisle.
I added a colorful bunch of carrots in the large box on the left. They balanced out the asparagus on the right side of the sketch, and the orange carrots echoed the color of the tangerines.
To fill one of the small boxes at the top of the page, I chose some cute little orange peppers.
The luscious fuchsia color of the radishes was irresistible. I mean, how can you not love that color?! They definitely deserved top billing on the page.
And the dragon fruit…be still my heart! Fun to draw, fun to paint, and fun to eat! It’s a win-win-win fruit.
A bunch of sunshine yellow tomatoes brightened up the center of the page…
and, for the last remaining square, I tossed on a few blueberries.
Here’s the finished drawing…
After everything was inked, I began painting. I still had hours of time before I needed to be back at the hospital, so I grabbed my QoR mini set and got to work. I used a water brush to simplify my setup, and, although I generally prefer using a regular paint brush, I managed just fine this time with the water brush and didn’t have to worry about spilling a cup of water. (I did, however, manage to spill my coffee! And, yes, it splattered on my sketchbook, but luckily it all wiped off cleanly and didn’t ruin the page.)
I had the page almost entirely painted before it was time to pack things up, check out with my bounty, and head off to pick up Fred.
The border and title were added later at home. Initially, I painted a colorful checked border around the perimeter of the page, but, after it was done, I hated the way it looked. Instead of being a suitable frame for the page, I felt it was a major distraction. It detracted from all the lovely colors of the fruits and vegetables. So-o-o-o-o…..
I covered it up! I carefully cut a piece of heavyweight white paper and glued it right over top of the offending border.
Then I played around with some simpler designs, testing them ahead of time before committing to drawing them on the fresh border area. I laid a sheet of Dura-lar Wet Media Film over the page and drew possible designs on it using a water-soluble pen. It’s a great way to preview how a border will look. (That’s what I should have done originally – it sure would have saved me a lot of time and trouble.) In the end, I chose a super simple design that didn’t compete with the sketches.
For the title, I used a font called Mf I Love Glitter for the script and A Abstract Groovy for the rainbow lettering. The border was inked with a Micron pen and painted with watercolor, as was the title. The white circles were done with a gel pen.
Sketching at Whole Foods ended being a really fun experience. The only problem I encountered was deciding what to sketch (and spilling my coffee!) Having a table to sit at made it all very easy. No one paid any attention to what I was doing, which helped me to relax and enjoy the experience. Next time, I think I’ll invite a friend along.
Have you ever sketched in a grocery store or other shop? How did it go?
23 Comments
Lovely as always.. oh to have 6 hours of time.
I savored every minute. Felt a little guilty about though, knowing that Fred was going under the knife while I was having fun. 🙁
Love it❤️. I can almost savor the delicious flavors while I enjoy the artistry in your sketch! Maybe I will head to the market now!
Thanks, Terry. I love sketching any kind of food, but this was especially fun.
Fresh vegetables are always a delight and yours look delicious and lovely! Thanks for the tip on how to change a border! Always love how you come up with solutions to those things we feel ruin our page! Love your lettering too!!! 💗
Thanks, Jaynie. I just couldn’t live with the checked border I put on the page originally. It ruined the sketch for me. So it was worth it to try and find a creative solution to save the day. Now I LOVE this page!
This sketch is terrific! I love all the suggestions you give for making it all work together.
There’s a lot that goes into doing a page like this. A lot of it is intuitive, but when I decide to write about the process, it makes me realize how much actual thinking goes on while I’m sketching.
I want to know what you made for dinner with that diverse bounty of fresh produce!
I made the colorful carrots for my grandkids when I had them over for dinner, and they were totally weirded out by them! I had to force them to taste them. They are definitely creatures of habit.
I liked how you placed the produce on the page. Your finished piece is stunning. No guilt about enjoying this time. You deserve it. It was an excellent use of time. It beats passing hospital corridors
I even added a few touches of detailing when I went back to the hospital and was sitting in the waiting room. Had a nice conversation with the woman sitting beside me. Art connects us to people in such a positive way.
Leslie! What inspiration you do give us!!! Your methods, skills, choice of sizes of veggies/berries is absolutely beautiful! This is “Monday Morning” just around the corner from your MOM! What a great send off for the week! Thank you so much for sharing your talent!
Nancy Hoffman
Glad you enjoyed it, Nancy. And thanks for always taking the time to comment. I love being able to keep in touch this way.
This is lovely, Leslie. And such fun.I love the wonderful colors and it’s fun to envision you sitting there, snatching an orange or bunch of carrots now and then!
I did feel kind of sneaky!
What a cool thing to do!
I see paintings everywhere I look – I’m totally obsessed! I just need to act on my impulses more often and take the time to pull out my sketchbook every day. I always feel happier and more content when I’ve been able to spend some time drawing or painting. It’s my therapy and meditation.
I love the way you use simple things that we have in our lives and you design and paint such a beautiful picture. Thanks for including the link to the fonts that you used for the title. I’m so fond of the “I Love Glitter” and how to make the heart symbols. I don’t understand the PUA Encoded glyphs on the last part of their instructions but I can still have fun with the heart doodles and swirls.
I’ll try the abstract Groovy font next. I’m on my way to buy some veggies now!
Jeanne Wilson
This is so bright and juicy! Did you sketch the vegetables with pencil first before you inked?Such a fun and dynamic page. I’ll never look at the grocery produce section in the same way!😄Its interesting that no one really paid attention to what you were doing…that’s nice to feel a bit incognito while doing something you love. A successful artist date!
Yes, I did a rough sketch of each item in pencil before doing a more detailed drawing in ink. The pencil sketch only takes a minute and it helps to get the item positioned where it needs to be in the box.
So beautiful! I’ve stood in the produce aisle many times and wished I could sketch and paint them. I love all those colors!! What ink do you have in your Sailor Fude? My ink isn’t waterproof and so I don’t use it much.
I think I have DeAtramentis black in it right now. Platinum Carbon black ink is a good one, too.