SCENES FROM LIFE: A SHORT PLAYETTE
THE CHERRY PICKER
by Eleanor Tylbor
SCENE: PRODUCE DEPT. OF SUPERMARKET. PEOPLE ARE GATHERED AROUND A DISPLAY OF CHERRIES
AT RISE: A WOMAN APPROACHES THE CHERRY DISPLAY, STOPS AND STUDIES THE PEOPLE GATHERED AROUND
FEMALE SHOPPER
Excuse me…um…can I get in here?
(people ignore her)
(cont’d). FEMALE SHOPPER Excuse me, people…could you make space for me?
(people continue to ignore her)
(cont’d.) FEMALE SHOPPER Hello? Earth to cherry pickers! An outsider would like to join you all!
(FEMALE SHOPPER moves her shopping cart forward and gently runs into someone)
CHERRY PICKER 1 Ouch! That hurt!
FEMALE SHOPPER I tried asking politely to get close to the counter but everyone seemed deaf to my request, so I had to take things in my own hands or with my shopping cart as the case may be
CHERRY PICKER 1 You could have tapped me on the shoulder, y’know
FEMALE SHOPPER Would it have made any difference?
CHERRY PICKER 1 Probably not but you could have tried
FEMALE SHOPPER Good price for cherries. Guess that’s why there’s so many people hanging out here. Hmmmm…where are the plastic bags. ‘Anybody tell me where the plastic bags are?’ Anyone want to give an opinion?
CHERRY PICKER 2 (mouth full of cherries and oozing juice)
…are…none…left… Have to…ask…manager for…more…bags
FEMALE SHOPPER Are those cherries you have in your mouth?
CHERRY PICKER 2 …uh-huh…
FEMALE SHOPPER Would it be presumptuous of me to assume you didn’t pay for them?
CHERRY PICKER 2 …hav’ta taste them, first…
FEMALE SHOPPER You do realize that in some circles that would be considered stealing
CHERRY PICKER 2 Everybody does it
FEMALE SHOPPER And that makes it right? What are you doing! Did you just spit out that cherry pit back into the display?
CHERRY PICKER 2 Yeah…I mean, I didn’t wanna dirty the floor or anything. Somebody could slip and hurt themselves. Anyway, everybody does it
FEMALE SHOPPER But…your saliva has germs, which you are depositing on the cherries
CHERRY PICKER 2 What else am I supposed to do with the pits?
FEMALE SHOPPER You could refrain from tasting the cherries or at the very least put them in your pocket and take them home with you or something
CHERRY PICKER 2 Everyone else is doing it. Check out the display
(FEMALE SHOPPER looks down at the display of cherries)
FEMALE SHOPPER Oh Gawd! |You’re right! To think I was about to put my hand inside there
CHERRY PICKER 2 You’re in luck. Here comes the produce manager with a roll of new plastic bags
PRODUCE MANAGER ‘Okay everyone - move aside! I’m gonna clean up all the cherry pits at the bottom! Not healthy.’
CHERRY PICKER 2 Aren’t you going to take a bag for cherries?
FEMALE SHOPPER Somehow I’ve lost my taste for them. There’s a sale on strawberries on the other counter, if only I can get near it…
These are the final couple of drawings from the rock n roll day last weekend. Actually, there's also a motorbike but that might take some time to finish. I must say that I'm pretty pleased that in just one day I produced so much stuff.
I'l let you into a secret about the car below; it most definitely wasn't that shape. I started off at the front of the car, which was going okay. Not great but okay. Then I realised that there was absolutely no bloody way I was going to fit the whole thing onto the page. It was, after all, a big long Zodiac! So, I had a decision to make and, yes, I did. I squashed the whole thing into the space I had. Ah well, as long as we keep it to ourselves nobody else ever needs to know.
Throughout this drawing I was thinking of my friend
France Belleville and her 'ladies'.
It's Cherry Blossom Time! Not only is it the prettiest time of year here in DC (at least when the weather cooperates) but it's my second favorite time of year to drive to work.* I spent a lot of time stuck in traffic on the 14th Street Bridge, but it offers a great view of all the cherry trees lining the Potomac.
(that's me at the festival last spring
ETA Photo taken by Dan, who is awesome and should not have been left out of the original post!)
Here's a haiku I wrote while stuck in traffic in 2008:
Cherry blossom rain
Makes way for unfurling leaves
The river sparkles
Today's Poetry Friday round up is over at A Year of Reading! *My most favorite is August, when Congress and the rest of the government go on vacation so there's very little traffic.
Ravens often visited me.
Sometimes they'd show up for breakfast.
Other times, they'd show up in my dreams.
acrylic and colored pencils on bristol board
5 x 7
Polychromos and mineral oil on illustration board, fixed with matte fixative
Hmmm. This is what I worked on this afternoon. I wanted to try a piece in this new pencil + oil technique, but with a dark background. I set the cherries up on a purple/plum colored plate and worked from life, in natural light.
Here's what I learned:
The oil over the dark background didn't bleed into the cherries, which is a good thing.
If you're going to do a dark background, save it for when you have time to really get into it, and not for a shorter study, like this.
In theory a dark background can make something colorful pop ~ it can also dull it down. Hard to tell which way its gonna go.
Make sure you can finish the piece before the light changes too dramatically, or else you're going to have problems.
You can do layers of pencil, oil, more pencil, more oil, more pencil, blend with a blending stump, more pencil, then spray fixative, with no bleeding or problems.
Be focused, and not thinking about snacks, or that turkey that was in the yard again, or a nap, or what that weird dream about marrying that guy from the past was all about.
If anyone is super crazy about this I will put it up for sale, gladly. I'm so used to working with a light background, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I might do another one of the cherries with a white background, not sure. I have other work I have to do tomorrow, and then something else the day after, so not sure how long the cherries will hold up in the frig. I may have to eat them before I get to draw them again.
Now its back to rendering bricks, oh boy!
It's cherry blossom time in DC! So, here is a poem about cherry blossoms. I took this picture during a rare bit of sun today, these trees are at the end of the block and I love the way the look reflected in the office building.
LOVELIEST OF TREES
By A.E. Housman
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride,
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Ayuddha.net has the round up!
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I love your "squashed" car - it would also probably get better gas mileage than the full size. Great sketches!
OK, so you squished the car. Just a bit! But the Forever Sketchcrawl tattoo more than makes up for it! Laughing my socks off here!
(I thought of "Wagonized"when you drew the Consul)
You see here's what happens: any car you draw goes through a transformation and becomes really cute!
what a charming vehicle! love it!
Thanks, guys.
I'm finding it very difficult to draw a car and not make it look like a France Belleville car. More practice is needed!
Dan, I just like cute cars!
Cheers, my dears.