So, I actually drew some stuff

[the_eggwhite]

Around the start of November last year, I actually got my sketchbook out for the first time in years (actually, I bought a new one) and did some scribbling. Two sketches worth, which I've only just gotten around to scanning in. I've sketched a grand total of once since then, but do plan to start again when the weather's good enough that I can go and sit somewhere interesting and doodle. I've not scanned the more recent one on account of it being terrible, but I thought these two came out pretty well, since they're my first after a very long gap. Even I was starting to forget that I'm not just a computer geek.

One of these was drawn on the train out of London at about 6:30ish in the evening. It was busy when I started, but quite empty when I finished. People moving all over the place - getting on and off, changing seats as more became available - that kind of thing. This was drawn probably in about 15 minutes, with inadequate materials. In other words, I used a random pencil I found in my bag, which was fairly blunt and I had no means to sharpen.


Train home



The other was drawn on the district line at about 8am. It was quite quiet when the journey started, but from Hammersmith onwards I had a fine view of another commuter's arse (for some reason my brain made me type communter - a strangely appropriate neologism, perhaps - conflating commuter and munter?). As a result, I stopped drawing somewhere around Hammersmith, meaning that this took probably around 15 minutes. I didn't finish (as evidenced by the somewhat blank door), but I quite liked it anyway. Especially as it was drawn with the same pencil as the previous sketch, still unsharpened.


District Line



Together, I call these my "amorphous commuter blobs" collection.

Comments

[cryx]

oooh.. I like these, and there is something quite spooky about the white space where the people are...

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

Thankee...

I realised that there was no way I was going to get people's features quickly enough. Also, because people tend to get a bit funny if you stare at them too much, nobody really looks at people on the train. So I drew them as outlines - you can see there's somebody there, and you can kind of tell what they're doing... but that's all you get.

[anonymous-james.livejournal.com]

Good perspective in the first one. In the second I like the way you've captured the woman reading the newspaper with her legs crossed. When limbs cross I find that very hard to deal with.

[(Anonymous)]

The perspective on the first one is quite a strong component because I was seated looking along the carriage. This actually made it easier to draw than the second, where the perspective was a bit of a bugger.

The second was a lot harder as I was looking across the carriage and was close enough to the far wall that I get a perception of curvature - turn your head to the left and the wall is further away - turn your head to the right and it's also further away.

It was also this effect which made the third sketch I did turn out a bit rubbish. I drew it in the Laundry in Egham when our washing machine was out of action, and had the same problem. When the perspective lines are straight, things are easy. When they're curved, it gets difficult quickly!

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

Obviously, that was me - I wish I could set firefox (which I use for Gmail) to open links in emails in Opera (which I use for everything else). Then I wouldn't keep finding myself logged out!