For the second time in just over a week, having my sketchbook with me at lunchtime paid off. If I had left it at home, I doubt very much that I would have seeked out paper and pencil. But, since I had the stuff with me and a few extra minutes at my disposal, it worked out.

I’ve mentioned my aversion to lettering in the past. And as I started to draw this, my first thoughts were, “how can I fake the sign?” And then I almost immediately forgot all about that, and the next thing I knew, I had the whole thing sketched out; and not too badly if I do say so.

In fact, the signage and the roof are my favorite parts of this sketch. They aren’t perfect, but for what this is–a small post-lunch sketch–I’m quite happy with them. If I had to guess why, I would point to 3 things:

Practice: I’ve been drawing more days than not for the past 10 weeks (Wow! When was the last time I was able to say THAT?!).

Confidence: With all that practice comes a certain level of trust that I can make a decent line when I need to.

I don’t know if I can put this into a word or two, but: A willingness to bind and gag my inner critic until the work is done. Sometimes you just have to convince yourself to shut up and draw. The more I do it, the easier it is to beat my inner critic into submission.

One thing I think I’m starting to convince myself of is that no matter how difficult the subject matter, it’s all just shapes and areas of shade/color. Some are a little more complex than others, but that just means you have to spend a little more time looking at them.

Interesting. This was not my best work; but I feel like it pointed out a lot of really important things. Oh American fast food… is there no problem you can’t solve? I mean, besides obesity.