"Three Rivers, Some People Read and Some People Sketch!"

Allan's down time in between sales!

I'm told Sundays at art festivals are usually pretty slow. There are lots of people strolling, but seldom looking to buy. It is even worse, in the fall, if you favorite football team is playing that Sunday afternoon. Well, the New Orleans Saints and the LSU Tigers played night games last weekend, and the weather was conducive for an outdoor event like an arts and crafts festival, so the Three Rivers Art Festival was fairly crowded.

Be that, as it may, by early afternoon Sunday, things were slow enough for someone like me to make the best use of my time by pulling out the sketchbook. This is one of three sketches I finished on that Sunday afternoon. It is, as well, the better of the three because the vendor, who sat in the booth directly across from me, was entranced with the New York Times business section and barely moved a muscle.

At least, that's what he told me when I showed him this sketch and complimented him on being a great model to draw from.

I started the drawing from the top carefully dissecting the straw fedora on his head and patiently worked my way down from there. I hoped that he would remain still as I was beginning to feel good about the direction of the sketch. Sometimes, you work fast, complete the drawing only to have it look horrible, and sometimes you take your time and concentrate, only to have the subject walk away.

An earlier sketch of another vendor I call, "The Birdhouse Man" was not as successful as it could have been because the subject squirmed all through the time that I started sketching him. Eventually, I had to fake the seated pose because he disappeared completely behind his tent.

Anyway, this vendor, whose name was Allan, approved of the ten minute sketch!

Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III