Subway Sketches

Today I drew for the first time in a long time. I've pretty much eliminated drawing from my roster of daily (or even yearly) activities, but, having forgotten reading material for my subway ride into Manhattan this afternoon, I was fidgety and decided to start drawing people that I saw. I had a notebook on me because I was going to a screening for a review, so I just went crazy sketching.

It felt like I had discovered a superpower I didn't know (or had forgotten) I had! The rules of proportion instinctually came back to me, and I drew with fury, for I didn't know if my subjects would be getting off at the next stop. I began making connections between the drawing process and my improv acting class: time was limited so I had to just go with the flow, perfectionism had to be thrown out the window, any result was a good result, and I was observing character through dress, posture, and facial expression.

Earlier today I was telling a favorite customer of mine at the video store where I work how much my improv class feels like writing out loud and on the spot. In improv, character development and dialogue must be invented instantaneously, and there's the added impetus of an audience to force you to keep going without getting distracted or censoring yourself. We started discussing how all the arts blend together. Any time I do one creative thing, guidelines from other disciplines start coming back to me, and it all seems to make sense.

Anyway, I wanted to share the drawings I did because they make me happy. It feels like the first time in a while I decided to do something and instantly got results that made me smile. I'll be making an effort to carry a sketchpad with me now, so maybe there will be a whole series of Subway drawings to come!