People Sketching on the 4th at Lake Tahoe

You are overlooking the beach with your wife, another couple, and a big picnic cooler at 3 p.m. waiting for the Fourth of July fireworks to light the night sky on  beautiful, blue Lake Tahoe. That's about six hours of waiting, lake gazing, people watching, convivial conversation, and eating. I don't know about you, but with six hours to blow, I need my sketch pad to practice some figure drawing what with all the beach "models" cavorting about. All sorts of shapes, sizes, and positions! Not easy, but great practice. I often like to populate my landscape paintings with people and practicing on getting down quick gestural figures is just what the doctor ordered. These were drawn directly with an ultra thin Sharpie pen and followed with washes made with a water-soluble black Tombow pen and a Niji Waterbrush. The all-plastic Niji brush holds water in the handle that is delivered to the brush tip by squeezing it a bit… no need for a separate container of water! Here are the tools below: