Two Faces

Very busy with work at the moment, but wanted to get at least one post in for June.

Two people sketched on the train into town the last few weeks.

Nothing special, just stuff to pass the time.

Roller blades.

A guy got on the train with his roller blades in his hands and sat with them on his lap.

He didn't stay long enough to get a full sketch done, ( he got off at West Hampstead ) but I like the shapes. They were heavy, clunky things. And well scuffed with use.

Yesterday

A few folk from yesterday.

Need to get sketching again. 

Those folks won"t draw themselves....

....... well, the self portraitists among them will, of course.

Like this one. Originally it felt way off and I thought to abandon it and start again, but on later viewing it works alright.

See, never self censor.

Hmmmmm

Lost in thought, he failed to see the person just across the aisle of the slow moving train, sketching him.

All he could think of was "Next time..., next time it would all work out alright."

two profiles

From two separate train trips into town.

In both cases I was drawn to emphasis the profile.

A definite theme and style coming through there.

Puck

A Canadian college ice hockey team swept onto the train, a tackle of padded bags and youth, blocking all the seats around me with sticks and limbs and maple clear accents, going to, or just having just been to, a match in Oxford.

Their talk was all of the Oxford rink, and the Oxford girls, and the smoothness of both it seemed. But I couldn't quite tell whether their tales were recent victories or anticipated conquests.

you snooze you lose.

This guy was fast asleep on the train home last night.

Despite the fact that the guy sitting next to him was mildly inebriated ( in a good way ) and insisted the rest of us all talk to each other, because 'that is how friendly they are up in Scotland'.  He said we should all tell each other what we had been up to. I told him about the play I had just been to see. He said he was going to take his flat mate... and then no one said anything more. 

Maybe this guy was just feigning sleep to get out of 'sharing'.

The Voice of Reassurance

This guy had his phone to his ear whilst working his tablet.

And all he kept saying was...

"Don't worry. It will be fine. I'm on my way to the site now. It will all be fine."

And then he would jab and scroll and look at something.

"It will be fine. I'm going there now, I will be there in an hour."

Point. Scroll.

"There's nothing to worry about."

TWO ON THE TRAIN

Nothing really to say about these two. Just sketched them on the way into town the other day.

Like them, but nothing more.

2 heads and a reclining lady.

Bit of a round up.

Did quite a few of this guy as he was the only person on the train at the time. These two are the ones I like. Am trying to push stuff on and go beyond drawing the usual. These don't really advance anything but I like them. Maybe the less shaded version has something of what I am on about... ?

And one from life drawing the other week. 

Feel I'm sort of moving towards a better level of drawing, but not there by any length of chalk. ( have tried chalk, not the answer ) Something to do with weight and arms and legs and skin and just the being of a person. The weight of a pulse ?

I have been on about this before, still not sure what it is. But the finding is interesting.

Sounding as mad as ever... oh well.

2 more from the same book

3 seated commuters

A quick round up of recent sketches.

This guy was with a mate who talked the whole time and he just nodded and agreed with him, and looked ever so slightly bored with the flood of opinion his mate had.

Friendship often has such moments.

This guy had been shopping in Manchester city centre and I liked the designer bag on the seat beside him. Bags that stand up on their own, so the thing inside can be tiny tiny, but the bag bigs it up and makes it ultra important.

This girl dozed on the train in the sunlight, with a shawl wrapped over her arms and shoulders, which accentuated her face even more. I started a second sketch of her because she was so good, but, and I'm not sure if she was aware of me or if it was just sun avoidance, but she then draped the shawl over her face so all I had was a tuft of hair sticking out the top.

Ho hum.

Q

This guy worked for Network Q. It said so on his fleece.

He had brilliant definition on his eyes, and the sunlight only caught that even more. He was talking to two girls who sat, one aside him, one opposite, which meant he kept moving his head from one to another, and I had four goes at starting a sketch before I got something down I felt happy with.

Clothes maketh the man

Saw the Humphrey Ocean works at the NPG over the weekend. Massively inspired by them.

And it made me realise how what we choose to wear says so much about us. Of course, I know if you see someone in a three piece suit you can safely assume they aren't off down the sewers. And they want you to know that.

But this went beyond that. How the anonymity of ordinary, everyday clothes still says so much. How even how you try to disappear says stuff about you.

This guy was on the train into town, and I was taken by his diagonal quilted jacket. What does that say about him?

What does that say about me ?

And then he made this brilliant pose.

Feet on seats

Caught, red footed.

Mind you, I am glad he did because it made for a great pose. I would have never drawn a knee that high up in relation to the rest of the body if I hadn't seen it.

And, of course, the by now ubiquitous i-phone.

Uh oh !

I have run out of sketches. Have been focused on other stuff lately and haven't kept up the sketching. And now I have run out.

So you will have to be content with this quick one of a railway worker in the distance.

It was done as a visual reminder. And is the only thing left that I have to amuse you, and myself, with.

Must get out more.

Saracens

On the train with a load of Saracen supporters last weekend. Something I guess I will see more of now they have moved to their new stadium in North London.

"You probably get more on a dry wednesday than a wet saturday"

And, apparently...

" They wanted £350 to get a new phone out to the wife via a call centre in Egypt "

" £350 !"

" Exactly. I said we'd wait."

Me, you and them.

There were three people involved in this sketch...

Got into a conversation with someone on the train home the other night. I was sketching and he was playing a game on his phone and we started talking about passing the time to make the journey go by, and what we had done that day.

It was a good conversation. I wished we all talked more like that.

Anyway, this is the sketch I did at the time.

As soon as I had drawn the eyes I felt it was going to be a pleasing sketch. And that was important to me, knowing I had someone watching it as well as me.

And why is that ? Why does someone else watching alter my relationship with what I am drawing ? Why am I so fickle as to want to be seen to be good at this ? Am I not suitably reassured in my ability to do this by now ? Why is it so important to impress a total stranger ? Why is it so important to be validated like that ? 

?

Actually, now I have told you this there are four people involved in this sketch.

Getting awful crowded in here.

In the Army now

Okay, so not really someone working, but in uniform so it almost counts.

I got fascinated by how the beret sat on his head. It gave a tight outline to the shape of the skull, but then has that full overlap to one side. What is that called ? That lopsided excess bit. I bet it has a military term. Anyway, it took several goes before I was anywhere near the shape of it.

He then took it off, rubbed his head all over, and stuffed it in his pocket. The beret, not his head.

snooze

You know how it is, you work all night, you work all day, to pay the bills you have to pay.

And you fall asleep the second you get on that train home.

Is it the weekend yet ?