1 Rough Drafts

    The only way to get better at something is to practice. Art is more than just a hobby or pastime to me. It's apart of my life, and helps me express things about myself in ways that even I can't comprehend at the time. I've drawn a plethora of fantasy things but life studies is a favorite of mine. Getting my sketchbook, a few pencils and finding a scene that speaks to me in the big apple is how i relax and slow down from the fast pace my life can be in at times. Typically I would find a park or other outdoor place to draw but my sister wanted to meet up so I told her to meet me at my favorite coffee shop  around 12, so that I'm not a melted puddle by the time she arrives around 2. As much as she blames the train we both know that she will never be on time even if the trains run perfectly. 

    Page after page of my sketchbook is filled with rough pencil drawings of buildings and scenes that caught my eye in the last 2 months. Some people kissing, smoking, jogging. Random moments in people's lives that i've captured with rough sketches. The few people that are in my book though have weird faces and They aren't as detailed as I would like them to be. They seem generic and repetitive. Maybe my time waiting on Anna would be better spent practicing faces. Looking around the simple interior of the coffee shop, my eyes are drawn more to random aspects of the furniture than the actual people in the shop. The small green plant on one table with a leaf thats a beautiful transition from green to an almost pastel yellow-green color. To the display of different kinds of coffee beans layered upon one another in neat slanted rows in one jar. There are other beautiful displays all over the quaint coffee shop but no one in the store is catching my eye, that is until he walks in. A beautiful stranger whose intriguing face instantly calls to me. I have to draw him and capture his looks. 

Maybe it's his sparkling green eyes that shined as if they were made of the most precious emeralds in the world. Maybe it was the blazing inferno resting upon his head in a small bun, that spread down his face into sideburns that framed his muscular jaw beautifully a look im sure only he could pull off. Or maybe it was the way that he walked in with such grace and power that its like he was a prince in another lifetime. Whatever it was I couldn't resist the urge to draw this interesting stranger. As he sat down with his drink at the table in front of mine, I made sly glances at him to study his face and the structure of it as I filled a page of my sketchbook with about a dozen sketches of his face. He was doing varying things from picture to picture. In some he's glancing outside, or at his phone, sipping at his drink, or looking down on it and contemplating.

 I started a new page, I wanted to draw him sitting relaxed one leg extended while he scrolled through his phone and sipped his coffee. However when I looked up at him, he had shifted into a more modelesque position it seemed like he was posing. I thought that he might have caught on to the fact that i was drawing him and he confirmed that in my mind when he turned and winked at me, which immediately made my face get really red and hot fast. I returned to my drawing ignoring his shifted pose and still drawing him in relaxed pose that I had wanted, taking the occasional glance at him to guestimate his proportions in relation better. Yet it seemed that whenever I looked up at him he was looking at me and making a variety of weird goofy faces and then adding in some kissy and winky faces here and there. I managed to keep my blushing relatively faint but this attractive stranger clearly knew that he was making me blush and was enjoying it. I was nearing completion of my drawing when Anna texted me that she had to cancel due to being caught up with her blonde boyfriend along with a sly face emoji, that I am choosing to ignore and a laughing face along With an apology. I responded with a quick okay, and that I had a pretty eventful day in the shop waiting for her anyway. When I looked up again I noticed that the stranger had left his seat but his drink and his small bag was left on the table so he must've just gone to the restroom I'm guessing. I quickly added the finishing touches to the drawing along with a small note for him. I folded the drawing and placed it under his drink, before I exited the cafe and headed back home.

    As soon as I got off the train and was walking home I received a text from an unknown number. They sent me a picture of the drawing that I had left the guy. "Thanks for the drawing I will definitely cherish this Elsa, my names Hans btw" with a kissy face.