Yesterday afternoon I headed over to California Avenue to sketch — disinterested in anything at home to use as a subject. I was going to do something quickly — an hour at the most — before going over to the Y for lap swim. Ended up at Cupcake Royale almost 2 hours and never made it to the Y. It takes a long time to draw in all those tiny cupcakes and boxes! After getting the scene down, it lacked the contrast of something up close — the yummy, perfect swirl of the frosting. A good excuse to buy two more, a carrot one for M (I cheated and made the frosting pink instead of white) and a babycake for HM. I wanted color without tediously (and not bold enough) filling in all the cupcakes in the case. The sparkly orange sprinkles, the pink frosting and sea green peppermint frostings provided the inspiration I needed for the color. I used the itty-bitty heart sprinkles (which I knew HM would be delighted to discover), white beaded sprinkles and oblong red ones as reference to scatter a bit on the sketch.

I had my whole kit this time — sketchbook, pen, pencil & eraser, pencil sharpener (in the much-used Altoids box, covered with Starbucks coffee blend stickers from college), colored pencils (in the same, dented tin from when I was a girl!), Japanese watercolors and brushes. I didn't have my own water cups this time, but a Verite paper cup worked perfectly for water filled from their fountain, and a black plastic coffee cup lid for mixing the few colors I needed.