Subway Life Drawings

[humza]

Hey, these were some life drawings done on the subway 2 and from work from around July through August, partially september of 2007...quite a memeorable time indeed, (in my defense, subway drawing can lead to bad line quality among a few other things lol).....feedback is encouraged, thanks!

[elenaM]

I guess this idea of sketching people the way you did is a great way of having a flow of real life on your hands, material to work with. The diversity of human faces at the metro is a plus that can enhance your abilities to draw people. Your skills in rendering faces seems to me greater than your figure drawing ones. I would concentrate on faces and get the most out of it, gather facial features information and draw a portrait out of these sketches later on.

[Pau1Winslow]

Great thread, I really enjoy the looseness of sketching in public, there's just so much life even in the unfinished studies... I tried my hand at sketching people on the bus but it was waaaay to shaky.. I may go out and sit at some places soon after seeing this.

Keep posting :)

[timpaatkins]

Really digging the construction lines and abstract shapes you are using to build your figures. Tell us a little about that!

Cheers Tim

[Pau1Winslow]

Yeah.. what steps do you take to sketching somebody when a person catches your eye? Parts of the figure you focus on? etc.

Thanks.

[Shantih]

These are really nice, far better than anything I've ever managed on the tube (although I'm often a bit nervous, the London Underground isn't reknowned for it's level headed types :P).

[Aniboomer]

Did anyone ever catch you drawing him? What did they have to say?

[humza]

Hey everyone

ElenaM-appreciate the post, although im thinking if my figures were weaker i think i may try to work on bringing them up along with strengthening the faces..interesting idea to try to put them 2gether to do a portrait, 2 bad it's highly unlikely 2 get the same model twice, lol

Paul1Winslow-Thanks a lot for your feedback, very kind....yeah it definitley can get pretty shakey, and sometimes i had 2 like stop because it was too shakey...for me it was a good way to make sure to get something kinda simple and personal in and help build my skills as much as possible during what would be down time...

timpatkins-thanks time, basically what i had been doing was blocking out the mass of the figure in kind of simple block shapes...i was originally thought 2 start wit the head and draw the spine but then i believe had a teacher suggest to draw the torso first since that's what i believe he said the masters would do since it was the center of balance...i think...not 100% positive on it, but i believe so, so i would usally start with torse in 2 or 3 block section 2 get the whole pose and arc of it was well as the spine 2 help establish the balance....from there i would roughly go on and do simple square blocks 4 everything and continue to construct on top of it....


ShantI- Thanks a lot, yeah i think u can always run in2 some interesting characters on any public transportation in any major city it seems...think that might be universal, lol!

Aniboomer- i think some might have noticed, although i think it was other people noticed i was drawing someone else.....i tried to be pretty subtle about it, but more then likely more people noticed then i realized...i dont think most of them said anything...and on occasionani would get a compliment or 2, think that was about it..... though it was a while ago i dont thnk there was any crazy subway stories...(least not involving the drawings :p)

....although there was one guy who i was drawing who was wearing a shirt that said

"Allow me to express myself through interpretive dance"

and i thnk he silhouttes of figures spelling out interpretive i believe....Lol, that kinda cracked me up....

hope that helps :)

Thank again 2 everyone

[humza]

Paul1Winslow- 2 answer ur 2nd post,

4 drawing on the subway a lot of who i decided 2 draw came from who i could get a decent shot at and was sitting or standing the most still, lol.... if i only can get a head shot, then i would start with that, otherwise i would start from the torso area and try 2 construct the figure as a whole....

[perilous]

These are really nice. Excellent work. i love the line quality and how you've built up the forms. I draw people on the bus every morning and i know how hard it can be to get people who aren't sitting still. You really manage to capture gesture and personality well. keep it up.

[Chris Bennett]

These are extremely beautiful drawings. Their slight ineloquence is the hallmark of their truth - I think that the movement of the train has meant that relying on slickness of mark-making is not an option, and thus everything is concentrated on lines that make your visual and haptic thoughts manifest. These are a real pleasure to look at.

[randolf]

Very, very nice work! Beautiful, sensitive, accurate and with wonderful touches of caricature coming in. An inspiration - thanks for posting!

[humza]

Thanks 4 the kind words perilous, chris, and randolf....

ur comments were really elloquent chris, i dont think i could have said it better myself....its good 2 get feedback

[drd]

These really remind me of my drawings in ballpoint in my sketchbook; I think we have the same kind of sketchbook, the paper looks exactly the same.

Nice work, definitely.

[Queen Nehalania]

Those are amazing!
I'm still too nervous to sketch other people though. Not to mention I live in a very small town and we don't have trains and buses to take us places. Everyone mostly drives. xD

And the park that we have isn't that good. There's kids running everywhere (like normal), but there seem to be some shady characters that hang around the basketball courts.
So I don't go there.

I thought about going to my favorite mall and sit at the food court and draw people since they'll be sitting there for awhile. I might be able to draw that and no one notice me. xD

Anyways those are really good. It amazes me that you get a lot of detail in some, the movement is very nice! My problem is that I would try to start putting in details first and not get the form. I've been drawing from 2-d pictures for too long. =P