Sketches on the bus and train in March I

These are some recent sketches I have done on public transport. One of these sketches has a lady I sketched on a 401 bus from Bexley to Belvedere Station. She was talking to her friend and I was sketching. She then noticed my eyes kept bouncing off her and unto my page. She then smiled and I used my "Wink technique" which diffused any tension. But then she became inquisitive, and asked, "are you drawing me?" I affirmed by nodding my head, she smiled and I kept on, after a few minutes she said, "I am soon going to get off, can I have a look? I said, I need a bit more time as I had only started. She then became relaxed but a bit anxious to see what made me so absorbed and keen in my observations. I noticed she couldn't wait any longer, and she said, PLEASE CAN I SEE IT, I AM GETTING OFF NOW!" So I showed her and she quickly asked if she could take a picture of it with her blackberry phone. I agreed and she took about 4 different shots, I promised to email a copy to her and she gave me her email address. That all happened in a 15 minute journey! But that's one of my little experiences on public transport and sketching.

People want to know why I sketch, what I do with the sketch, how I got into sketching, if this is what I do everyday, what I see in them that makes me want to sketch them......the questions never end and as Johnny Nash used to sing in a song my dad loved so well, I can only say," ....there are more questions than answers....."





Special Quote
"Today, if a novice signs up for a drawing class, more often than not the first lecture he hears focuses on anatomy. The predominant assumption persists that learning the muscles and bones of the human body enables one to draw. If this were true, all physicians, body workers and personal trainers would draw well. This thinking is obviously false. Learning to draw comes well with a different and much simpler focus.
The human mind complicates seeing, and that is why these disciplines can be a trap. It is easier to busy oneself with the nomenclature of anatomy and the rules of perspective and proportion than to grapple with the real demon: seeing simply. It is easy to complicate and so difficult to simplify."-Sherrie McGraw author of The Language of Drawing.