Making Drawings of Commuters
If you decide to try out these suggestions I would love to hear how it goes so feel free to leave questions in the comments section if you like.
I have been drawing commuters for years on the Greater Boston MBTA public transit system. Drawing in a setting like this can help you to train yourself to look very carefully and to draw quickly. Other people usually will ignore you while maintaining their private space reading, listening to music, playing video games or daydreaming while you sketch them, just as long as you avoid disturbing them with your gaze.
Choosing a subject is part of the challenge. Sometimes you may accidentally make someone feel uncomfortable if they become aware that you're drawing them. If that happens I stop drawing them. You can casually look around for another subject or just wait for someone else to settle down nearby. Your attention on others might be felt even if they are not looking up. I stress that if you want to do this try to work on being as unobtrusive and respectful as possible of others' personal space. Cultivate a healthy respect for the unspoken rules of private personal space.
If you are a regular user of public transit you know that people get on, sit or stand somewhere and remain mostly not moving very much. Usually they stay for no more than a few minutes so you will have very little time to draw them. This is a golden opportunity to train yourself to quickly capture the most memorable features of a face, posture, gestures, and the cut and fit of clothing. Even if you can only capture a few lines or so this will be a good beginning. Strive to make your marks count by noticing what features about your subject stand out the most about them. Learn to trust your eyes and not to second guess what you see.
Be quick! Lay down your marks immediately before you forget what you saw. No second guessing!
What you are trying to do is reproduce the image that hangs out on your retina before it fades away. It lasts for a few brief seconds which is why part of what you train yourself to do is just make the marks you remember seeing as fast you can. The beauty of this practice is that you learn to trust yourself and also you learn to trust the impressions your eyes receive. The things about especially facial characteristics that are most unique or that stand out are the ones we find easiest to remember. So if you can get even one of these down on your paper you have a good start.
From my own process of trial and error I learned that a good method for drawing is to watch carefully but ever so briefly with attention on some feature, say a facial feature, chin, nose, mouth or hair that will capture a bit of the personality of the person. The image of what you look at stays on the retina just long enough for you to get the marks down on the page. It does take some practice to develop this, but by choosing features to focus on, ones that especially capture your attention, you can begin to get a pretty good likeness.
Sometimes I can't see the person's face but they may look interesting in other ways. The figure just below was a guy with a big mass of dreads that hid his face. He sat there reading for a while and I tried to figure out how to draw him. The main thing was his hair, his arms and hands and his posture. So I just drew what I could see and even though his face wasn't visible because his head was bent down with his dreads hanging forward I still felt that I caught a good sense of the strong focus he had on his reading.
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A man on the greenline with head down while reading a book.
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A woman with a young boy at Broadway Station on the redline
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Woman waits in Broadway Station as a gust of wind blows her hair
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Man seated on the redline looks pensive. A second face appears just below his face.
This was another commuter who boarded the train after the first fellow got off. |
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| Some Shoe Styles |
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| Unfinished drawing |
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