Brushes with strangers

Back up to date. I did this one today, on the Tube. The colour...

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:38:30 +0100

Back up to date. I did this one today, on the Tube. The colour scheme was obvious. This chap really was all in shades of grey. Pale skin, salt-and-pepper stubble and hair, grey clothes. It was like someone printed him out cheaply. Poor chap.

Here’s another forgotten sketch. I seem to remember this was on...

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:36:22 +0100

Here’s another forgotten sketch. I seem to remember this was on a train from London back to Surrey.

Oh dear. I’ve been neglecting this blog again. I keep doing...

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:35:12 +0100

Oh dear. I’ve been neglecting this blog again. I keep doing little sketches and then completely forgetting about them. Like this chap. Where? When? Can’t remember. Sorry.

This chap was pretty irresistible. Sound asleep, for a start, so...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:00:44 +0100

This chap was pretty irresistible. Sound asleep, for a start, so there was no irritating fidgeting to work around. And then that hood: all mottled fake fur, inviting me to try out a few of the pattern options in Brushes.

Then people piled onto the train and got between us, which was very annoying of them.

This is one of the sketches where I started to feel I’d cracked...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:38:56 +0100

This is one of the sketches where I started to feel I’d cracked it: both the drawing itself and the use of Brushes.

It just seemed to come together, from the first rough, broad grey outline of this old fellow’s head. Unlike many of my drawings (I confess), this one really looked like the subject. I’d like to think a member of his family might recognise him from this – and that’s definitely not always true.

He kept very still, which helps, of course. Contrary to how he might appear, he wasn’t asleep – or worse. (Daniel Gray described this sketch to me on Path as ‘a dead Lloyd Grossman’.) In fact, he was reading a book, which was clearly absorbing as he barely moved a muscle.

There was a professiorial air about him, and his face seemed to have been formed by someone scrunching a loose bolt of fabric: all soft folds and pleats. And then that purple scarf: a casual, rather flamboyant touch, tossed over the shoulder of his sober black coat.

I couldn‘t help imagining that if you caught his eye there might be a similar touch of the eccentric, or dramatic, in his otherwise placid gaze: hints of bright colours within.

I’ve got back into the sketching in the past couple of days,...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:28:23 +0100

I’ve got back into the sketching in the past couple of days, starting with this splendid fellow, opposite whom I found myself sitting yesterday.

There are some people who so fully embody a stereotype that it’s hard to believe they’re not dressed for a film role. (Maybe he was.)

This chap, ruddy-faced in that way that suggests country air, horses and buckets of sherry, also had startling hair. It looked to have been petrified by Brilliantine into a golden helmet locked in place on his scalp.

The white-collared blue shirt; the gold tie with little blue emblems; the herringbone coat with black velvet collar detail: he’d been groomed and dressed by Central Casting as ‘Rural Toff’.

All of which begs the question, what on earth was he doing slumming it on the Tube in the middle of the afternoon?

Here’s a sleepy fellow from the train home the other night. His...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:00:27 +0000

Here’s a sleepy fellow from the train home the other night. His was a commuter face from Central Casting: drawn, lined with anxiety, held in a perpetual furrowed frown. Veering between dozing off and staring intently out of the window.

Poor chap. Hopefully it was only superficial. He was probably just tired.

Back on faces again. This poor woman was actually very...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:04:25 +0000

Back on faces again. This poor woman was actually very attractive, but has come out looking a bit Disney witch-ish. Sorry about that, stranger.

She had great clothes on for sketching: an enormous heavy scarf wound round and round her soulders, over a thick greatcoat with a wide belt. All of it black, and she had black hair too.

Again, I haven’t managed to fill in all that back – I should have done her on a black ground, dammit. Must remember that next time.

I’m kind of surprised I didn’t think of this before. It’s not...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:46:11 +0000

I’m kind of surprised I didn’t think of this before. It’s not always easy to draw people’s faces. They get suspicious if they catch you peering intently at them over your iPad. And who can blame them?

This girl’s shoes caught me eye, and I thought: why not? These brushes with strangers needn’t always be face-to-face. How about face-to-feet?

It helps when the shoes are this interesting: black pumps set with silver studs. (You’re right, I should fill in the black. But who has the time?) But in any case, it made a nice change to draw something other than eyes, ears and noses for a while.

I can’t see feet replacing faces long-term, but don’t be surprised if the odd one crops up in the future.

Here’s my second stranger on a train from this morning. I had...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:26:55 +0000

Here’s my second stranger on a train from this morning. I had one stop left. (Warren Street to Euston, completists.)

As so often happens, I ended up liking this very speedy one much more than many of the more deliberate ones.

I’m in Manchester for a couple of days, and drew a couple of...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:24:46 +0000

I’m in Manchester for a couple of days, and drew a couple of strangers on the Tube this morning as I crossed London.

Here’s an older fellow who was sitting just along from where I was standing.

There’s a law somewhere that says if you’re an older, well-to-do sort of chap, you must have hair the mad untamedness of which increases with your well-to-doness. I reckon.

Here’s the chap who stepped into the middle of the previous...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:25:16 +0000

Here’s the chap who stepped into the middle of the previous sketch. With his big orange woolly hat.

A couple more US brushes coming up, scribbled in Starbucks...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:24:20 +0000

A couple more US brushes coming up, scribbled in Starbucks between meetings. I felt I was doing pretty well with this chap, then another guy came in and sat directly between us. Grr. So I had to draw him instead.

Such are the frustrations of the Brusher.

I’ve been in the US for a week now (thanks to this), but haven’t...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 23:42:36 +0000

I’ve been in the US for a week now (thanks to this), but haven’t managed a Brushes With Strangers until now. (Well, I did try one in a San Francisco coffee shop, but it was rubbish.)

This weary chap was on the New York subway with me this afternoon. But not for long – I only got a couple of stops with him until he woke up and got off. So I had to do the beard after the fact. But he came out OK, I think.

A one-stop shot, this one. We only had the time between Sloane...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:00:21 +0000

A one-stop shot, this one. We only had the time between Sloane Square and Victoria Tube stations, and that’s not very long. But he was a good lad, and sat nice and still.

I even managed to give a roughly accurate impression of his hand, instead of creating something that looks like a mutilated squid sewn onto his arm. Progress.

Two ladies from the Tube today. The first, an ancient...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 22:08:15 +0000

Two ladies from the Tube today. The first, an ancient Indian-looking lady, inscribed all over with fine lines and wrinkles. She was chatting intensely to her equally aged friend, and so didn’t take any notice of me sitting opposite. I’d have loved to get her wispy hair too – a wiry, windblown toss of white and shades of grey. But as ever, the transience of public transport got the better of me, and off she went.

The same happened with the other lady, whose looks originated even further to the east. But this was my fault too. I spent so long putting in the background, and then creating a silhouette in which to fill in the detail, I had almost no time for her face.

As a result, she looks vaguely as if she might be wearing some sort of religious robe. In fact, the billowy shapes either side of her head are the waves of her hair, emerging like a tide from the woollen hat gripping the top of her head.

I’ve also got her features a little skewiff, which is a shame, as he heavy eyeliner and bright lipstick created a nicely dramatic effect against her pale skin, itself set against a dark silhouette.

But the solid silhouette kind of suits her: she looked a robust, self-contained woman, well insulated from the world by wool (she had on a big, tassely scarf, too) and her own internal rigour. (I have no idea if she has internal rigour. She just looked like she would have.) So I thought I’d put her up here anyway.

Beards are always good. Not sure why, I just like the meditative...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:14:00 +0000

Beards are always good. Not sure why, I just like the meditative accretion of little strokes (made easier by the zoom function in Brushes), bit by bit, one after the other. It’s very calming.

This fellow kept himself very neat. Everything sharply delineated, from crown to chin. A firm, lean face that spoke of good diet and regular workouts. The sort of face that looks like the jaw is permanently clenched. Probably an architect. Or a serial killer. Or both.

A quick one on the train home. I thought I’d try that Picasso...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:40:32 +0000

A quick one on the train home. I thought I’d try that Picasso thing of drawing with a single line (displayed nicely here). It’s no Picasso, but it was fun. And I liked the contrast of sticking in the fat orange bars of the handrails.

His hood really was this big. It was enormous. His head, crowned...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:31:46 +0000

His hood really was this big. It was enormous. His head, crowned with a grey baseball cap, sat deep inside it like some creature hiding at the back of a cave, or a mollusc in its shell. I really couldn’t see his eyes.

His friend was sitting opposite him – and next to me, which gave the process of drawing him a little extra frisson. Mind you, they were chatting in an easy, friendly way that made him appear far less intimidating in life than he does in this drawing.

I wish I’d beefed up the red and blue of the jacket he wore under the black and white hoodie. They were bright, primary colours that popped out from all that monochrome in a far more vivid way that they do here. Never mind. I had fun with his moustache.

This chunky chap was trying valiantly to stay awake, but kept...

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 07:08:52 +0000

This chunky chap was trying valiantly to stay awake, but kept folding up like his strings had been cut. Good news for me and my iPad.