In my first post knee-surgery outing (as opposed to doctor’s visits) we went to our local cafe. Changes, by way of a major upgrade of the pavement and landscaping of the shops, are well underway and the dinosaur is on a leave of absence. Instead there was a concreting crew waiting to pour several large slabs which will form the new, level area for seating.

You can tell I’m a bit rusty because I made a real beginner mistake – I forgot to check my pens before I left. One was completely out of ink and the other has a dodgy nib that really needs changing.

It took a while to get going with the sketches as I fiddled around finding a pencil and approach that I was happy with. In the end I began by focusing in some of the boots that were sitting ready to be used.

Then the concrete truck arrived and before I knew it I had sketched a group of labourers that Kazimir Malevich would have been proud of.

By way of comparison here is one of Kazimir’s.

There were several slabs to be poured so I managed to capture the action by loking for the repetitive movements.

I really enjoyed trying to capture the way the men moved, although clearly bad backs are an outcome of such work.