In my short trek across Europe I managed to squeeze in some quick sketches. Packing Amsterdam, Paris and London into a span of under nine days didn't seem to leave much time for doodling, despite the ample material. Mostly I was just dashing off a quick brush doodle without much detail, before moving on to the next spot. Overall, cafes and pubs were filled with tempting subjects, as was the architecture (minus all the windows), not to mention inspiration from world famous museums that had me itching to draw. A British waitress even asked me, Simon style, if I was doing some "drawering".
Here's some sketching from an afternoon at Starbucks. I was surprised to see the diversity and also the actual amount of people lounging around in a coffee shop during the middle of the day, at a spot nowhere near a university or pedestrians. And especially surprising was that it seems Starbucks is luring the senior population over from Tim Horton's. Must have something to do with the comfy chairs. My only complaint is that at five dollars a beverage, somebody should really be doing my sketching for me so I can relax more.
As a connoisseur of brush pen sketching, I got overly excited after stumbling across a little blog by artist Davis Chino. Brush Pen Paris features his sketches from a trip in Paris, soaking up the cafe culture. Everything has just such a great European feel, like an animated film vibe, of say, Ratatouille.
The drawings of interesting character studies are quite vibrant and loose, both keys to working with brush pens. Davis also has another more current site with other sketches, Brush Pen Breakfast.
The drawings of interesting character studies are quite vibrant and loose, both keys to working with brush pens. Davis also has another more current site with other sketches, Brush Pen Breakfast.








