SeaTac Airport: Killin' Time

Long layovers and waits used to drive me crazy because it seemed all one could do was sit and wait, go for long walks down the concourse, read, or sleep.  Careful with the sleep though as you could sleep right through your flight.

Then along came "urban sketching."  All one needs is something to draw with and draw on: could be a burnt stick on a wall, a bloody finger on the sidewalk, or a nice white piece of paper in a lap-sized sketchbook and a pencil, or pen, or brush.  Doesn't matter, just something to draw with and on, right?

Long hooked on urban sketching and capturing difficult subjects, for me, like cars, people, trees, and faces, I try to take advantage of any opportunity to draw.  My favorite subject is architectural studies, but that's for another time.

So, while in SeaTac a couple of weeks ago with a long, 3 or 4 hour wait, I sketched mostly the people walking by.  It is impossible, again - for me, to capture a single person on the move. Each figure in these two images is actually a composite of at least 3 or 4 people. First get the idea of the head, then someone else walking by gives you an upper torso with maybe arms, someone else gives a backpack, or a carry-on on wheels, and it maybe be 2 or 3 more who provide the reference for the legs and shoes. It is a real challenge and I don't claim any expertise, just my own renderings backed up by having drawn hundreds, if not a few thousand, people over the past ten or twelve  years.

Enjoy.

#jimsketcher