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.

Commute people

I liked how this young lady's big hood hung over the back of her seat:




This fellow reading the paper had on Clark Kent-style glasses with really thick rims. At first I thought he was wearing eyeglass cords, but they were probably just earphones:



Book in one hand, coffee in the other. She had on some neat boots, too:



Oh, and I'll tell you what, sketching on a bus that seems intent upon hitting every single pothole and bump on the road is pretty challenging.

Latest commute sketchwork

Slowly but surely I seem to be mapping out the area around the Addison Brown Line stop:



Some people on the bus sketches:

Street corner sketch

One of my weaknesses has always been backgrounds and environments, so these sketches are turning out to be good exercise. I'm finding that I don't need to make them perfectly accurate, just picking out enough detail to capture the look of a scene is sufficient. And it's fun.

Corner of Addison and Ravenswood:

New sketches from my commute

Newspaper vending machines outside the Addison Brown Line stop:



Lady reading on the Ravenswood train heading to Kimball, I liked what the light was doing with her hat:

On-the-go sketches

Been preoccupied since the birth of my daughter (she'll be 7 weeks old as of Wednesday); too busy, too tired, too lazy to draw. I have a little sketchpad that I got as a gift, I'm going to try and do quickie drawings during my work commute... We'll have to see how long I can keep that going.