Colors! with Photoshop redux

I've been studying some Lynda.com Photoshop tutorials for work, and for kicks I applied some of what I learned to an old Colors! robot painting I did. Here's the original:




I messed around with high pass and blur using layer masks, and brought in some texture to make it a little more painterly. I'm pleased with the results:



What's nice is it wasn't all that hard to do as techniques go, and I think it gave the pic some visual punch.

Latest round of commute sketches

Just about filled the little sketchpad, ended up ordering a couple new ones. The pad is just the right size for keeping in a pocket and pulling it out on a whim. Page size is just small enough to not be intimidating-- "Oh, I can pull off a quickie sketch, not like I have a huge white sheet of paper to fill..."

Text is worth a thousand sketches

When I consider drawing someone in public clandestinely, I find there's always a slight hesitation at the thought that at any moment the person could notice I'm drawing them, get really upset and snatch my sketchbook out of my hands, rip out the pages and throw them to the ground, to stomp on them repeatedly.

But if they're preoccupied with, say, texting or surfing the web on their phone, it's all good in the 'hood...

Commute: The Continuing Voyages

Woman talking on the phone, she was wearing some big rings:



Didn't really know where to begin with this sketch, so I just started in a corner and worked my way out... Initially there wasn't anyone in the frame when I started drawing, but I figured someone would step in eventually, and I could just add them in later:



Doing quick sketches on public transportation can be exhilirating, but at the same time it can be a little heartbreaking; when you come upon a subject with so much interesting detail you feel like you could sit and sketch it all day, but you only have a few minutes within which to capture it before something changes... like your view gets blocked by another passenger, or you arrive at your stop, etc.