Legal sketching

When was the last time you drew on a placemat in a restaurant? That was once a favorite pasttime of mine, back in the Crayola days. As an illustration teacher, I keep telling students to draw all the time, but do I?
Hardly. But my daughter, 11, is doing that. She adds a little drawing to the grocery list on the counter, to the cover of a catalog on the kitchen table, and draws on the edges of her homework. When we walked across the street from our Boston hotel recently, I brought along my sketchbook, not sure there would be paper placemats at Legal Seafood.



The wall murals had Dick Dale playing in my head as we passed the sketchbook back and forth. I was drawing the brisk servers with sleek profiles.





Daisy was drawing a sea fairy.



This is a classic example of the contrast between observation and invention. Get out a pencil the next time you're between appetizers!