"A Little Yellow Iconic Pickup Truck!"

Another view and a bit out of proportion...

Here's the second view I sketched of the little yellow pickup that couldn't! Or should I say, that I "couldn't"... get the proportions right. The hood was not long enough and the truck bed was also too small. The back tire on the passengers side was flat which kinda twisted that back end a little, but no excuses. I just didn't get it right! I edited out all of the elements in the background because I didn't really feel up to sketching a bunch of pine trees and storage buildings.

The little truck has become rather iconic, so if I can find another angle that pleases me, maybe I'll bring my paints and do a little "truck aire" painting outdoors!

                                                                          Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III

"Another Catchy Eyesore... Or A Valuable Find!"

A rusty and dilapidated old yellow truck...

This old Ford ( I think! ) has been out in front of an auto body store for years. It is painted yellow and is really easy to spot from the highway in Covington. Like the old Plymouth that I sketched a few months back, I've been meaning to stop and sketch it for years, but once I am on that road sitting in traffic, all my energies are geared to just getting off that highway and back home!

I checked the interior, and it seems to be in fairly good condition, but the window on the drivers side is stuck halfway up and facing towards the south... where most of our weather comes from.

Walking around it to first decide what angle I would draw it by, I wondered...

I wondered how valuable this little rusty pickup would be in Southern California!

Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III

Sketches From My Coffee Shop Getaway...No.3

Just sippin coffee...

Just two sketches of people drinking coffee. The small head I pretty much faked because the man moved too much for me to get too interested in making him look like anything other than a gestural thing. The hand actually looks better in this pic than in the other sketch of the woman.

Hands aren't easy, and they can ruin an otherwise beautiful drawing. I basically drew this woman's hand from past knowledge of how to not make it look like a claw. When I was drawing frames of hands holding product in my storyboard work, I always used reference because my frame style was more realistic than most storyboarder's art and beautiful hands always highlighted the product. I felt it was very important, especially with a woman's hand.

My mom and my wife both have really beautiful and expressive hands. Many times, in the wee hours of a deadline, I'd pose Therese's hands and photograph it with a Polaroid. She was so good at modeling I rarely had to direct her before I shot.

Anyway, this woman's hand works alone on it's own, but next to the rest of the pose, which I love, it fails.

Of course, I'll give myself a break by saying it is just a pencil sketch of a moving person expressing emotions during a conversation. If you look closely, I was rather timid with my lines which I purposely thought about before making a mark. Not so with the smaller sketch which is basically a mindless doodle.

I love her eyes which I felt I captured pretty well. I sort of idealize this person because she wasn't as pretty as my drawing depicted... truth be told.

Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III

Sketches From My Coffee Shop Getaway...No.4

This guy shares his table with a PC woman... 

Is this guy just sharing a table to be polite or is it something deeper than that. Could this be the start of a new romance or what? Clearly, the woman was a complete stranger as she perused the coffee shop for a seat with an available outlet to plug her PC into.

Mr. Apple guy looked up for a moment and then back down to his laptop. It was reminiscent of my days riding in the bus to school. Inevitably, I'd give up my seat to a woman who was struggling to stand upright with a load of books, purse, child... whatever. But this guy wasn't buying it until the lady actually invited herself to his table after having spotted the open chair and an unused outlet.

He acquiesced and as he did, his slouch became less slouchy, if only to move his feet to make way for her legs. But it was still quite slouchy!

If it is springtime and love is in the air, it is only between this dude and his Apple computer!

Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III

Sketches From My Coffee Shop Getaway...No.2

"I'm Looking Through You, Where Did You Go?

Okay, file it under "male ego". A woman just a booth away intrigued me enough to pull out the sketchbook. This is actually the first sketch of four. To say she was actually good looking would be an understatement though I can't really call my sketch of her, a portraiture. It hadn't been a good week and I thought it would be a good idea to just get away from everywhere to think. I occasionally visit various coffee shops to sit and mope and "ponder."

And sketch.

Anyway, as she looked up and occasionally sipped from her coffee cup,  I noticed her looking my way as I was looking her way. We really couldn't help it because we were directly across from each other, one booth away. I must admit that I had a better view than she did because I was facing the outside windows and she had...

Well, she had the hallway to the restrooms and uh, me!

I became a bit self conscious about looking up at her enough to actually sketch the real person. I kinda did one of those "Drawing from the Whatever Side of the Brain" exercises where you just look up once or twice and really look at your subject and then draw from your memory, but I cheated quite a bit.

I couldn't help it. She was beautiful... and it seemed as though she was staring at me.

All kinds of thoughts enter my mind as I continued to sketch her. Eventually, even though I was rather disappointed with my results, I went on to other subject matter. I was too embarrassed to continue to look up at her to perfect my drawing.

I moved on, and I guess she did too, but she didn't leave. She actually bought a refill, sat back down and stared some more. When I realized it was time to check in on the home front, I put away my laptop, my sketchbook and with half cup of coffee, I got up to leave. It would make me crazy all week if I didn't apologize to her and put behind me all the imaginary possibilities that would never let me go.

Who knows? I may be able to show her the results of my constant perusal, that is, if she asks.

"Excuse me, ma'am," I said as I packed up my things. "I want to apologize if I seemed a bit forward staring your way. I didn't mean to insinuate anything."

"I was just wasting time staring out toward the window with a cup of coffee, my computer and my sketchbook. "I...

I noticed there was a few sheets of loose leaf paper on the table, a pen, a napkin and her large PJ's coffee cup as I lied and said," I'm actually waiting for someone and I guess they're not showing up!"

She smiled back and replied, "Oh, I'm sorry! I never noticed you drawing. Are you an artist?"

"Yeh, I said rather deflatedly, "That's what I do for a living!"

"That's nice," she said, as she turned her head to, once again, drift off to some unknown place of peace.

I walked away and I thought to myself, among other things, "She didn't even asked to see my sketches!"

C'est la vie!

Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III

Sketches From My Coffee Shop Getaway...No.1

One of four mindless doodles...

The other day I had the morning to myself and decided to space out at the local PJ's Coffee Shop. I was determined not to get myself in a funk over the response I got from a perspective client. I'm not even sure I wanted the job, but I nevertheless spent a few hours assembling a "pdf"slideshow of samples. It seems no matter how many "presentations" you have available, someone requires something you have, but have to put together in some logical form and present it to them.

I liked it better when I could interview personally with a client, but it would have taken an airplane ticket to do so, soooooooo!

So, I went an had a large cup of coffee and sketched people doing their thing. Just mindless quickies, in pencil, to keep the chops up. Here's the first...

Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III