During much of August, I spent some quality time taking in the beauty of God’s creation in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina – the sun, the sand, the surf, and the various shapes, sizes and personalities of humanity.
Often in walking down to the beach, I would take along my sketchbook wondering who might be my unwitting subjects for the day. Will there be some kids burying each other in the sand? How about a good looking couple whose physiques will allow me to brush up on my muscle knowledge? Or perhaps there will be a little old granny riding the waves on a boogie board. Regardless, there is always someone of interest to sketch at the beach, and hopefully I won’t get caught doing so.
On this one day in particular, it wasn’t hard to notice this family who set up shop next to my family. They broke out some lawn darts to toss – not far from my head. Besides seeing sharp pointy objects that glistened in the sun flying through the air in my general direction, I noticed the fun that these adults were having, in particular the patriarch of the family.
This individual was a large man. He was tall with an imposing presence. His size was only equalled by his personality which was evident in the fun he was having with his sons and daughters-in-law tossing those weapons of mirthful competition. They partook of some friendly trash-talking, and this gentleman was not above striking silly poses to get the goat of family members, even to the point of performing mock hulas. This large man was, in short, a big loveable character. I had to draw him.
Well, when one is drawing strangers, one must be as discreet as possible so as to not offend nor frighten the subject in question. I am usually very good at that – usually. As I was about to finish my sketch, I overheard some of their family commenting on my drawing from behind me. I had, in fact, been discovered. This is what they saw:
Thankfully, no one seemed offended nor upset by my doodle. If they were, they never told me. Though I wonder why they sat down the beach away from us for the rest of the week after that? Hmmm. Oh well.
Come back again tomorrow as I’ll be sharing with you some more doodles of beach goers who did NOT catch on to my observances.