Drawings à la Carte

Drawings on the Payment Screen

Lately, I’ve noticed the digital devices they bring to pay in restaurants. And instead of signing, I’ve started drawing—usually a smiling sun, a smiling rainbow and a smiling car.

If the place is crowded and the staff seems busy, I just make a quick line, I don’t want to add more to their plate (pun intended!). But if the atmosphere is relaxed, I ask if I can take a couple of minutes to draw instead of just signing, explaining it’s part of a little project I’m doing. Most of the time, to my surprise, it’s welcomed with joy.

One time, a waitress even took a photo of me drawing and said: “We need more of that in the world these days.” I understood she meant those small moments of joy. Still, I couldn’t help daydreaming about a new path, as the Dalai Lama of illustration, wandering from restaurant to restaurant, changing the world with smiling suns, smiling rainbows and smiling cars.

Funny enough, after a decade of getting paid to do illustrations, now I’m the one paying to make them!