Blackburn

Mill Hill

Cherry Tree

A day return to Preston

DRAWING PEOPLE is difficult. Drawing people from life when they are on the move can be tough as well. I want to be able to draw people convincingly and to do that you have to practice. 

I practice drawing people in my sketchbook that I carry around with me all the time and I draw people directly from observation whenever I can. 

I draw in small, handy A5 Seawhite sketchbooks, I usually draw with a fine propelling pencil, it probably contravenes some arcane railway health and safety rule to sharpen a pencil on a train with a penknife anyway, in any case I found it difficult to sharpen pencils on the train. (I was always told as a 

student never to use a pencil sharpener, so I don’t. It breaks the lead apparently). Occasionally I set my self small creative drawing problems, like drawing people’s hands, or drawing them from the shoes up instead of beginning with the face.

I don’t work from photographs, and I don’t usually rework these drawings at all, it is important to me that I capture the person as they are in real time. I try not to rub anything out either. I think drawing from observation is the most honest way in which you can draw. However the colour images you see over the previous pages are an experiment to see if I could make something more “finished” out of my sketchbook drawings. 

These images have been reworked digitally, at least the original drawings have been simplified and the colour added on my computer. I don’t tend to make many notes when I am drawing, but I sometimes write down lyrics if I am listening to my i-Pod. This can make some interesting contrasts, as you might expect. 

I hope that these drawings record something that we don’t value very much. Most of us consider 

commuting a waste of time. I have tried to make it a creative time.

Pleasington

Here I was listening to Echo and the Bunnymen, The Killing Moon?

Bamber Bridge

"His hair was exactly the shade of brown..." is from I Heard Love is Blind by Amy Winehouse (another artist who is no longer on my i pod). The lyrics became disjointed and I missed bits as I was drawing. It feels a bit like this chap is perhaps writing these words?

Lostock Hall

When I am travelling and drawing I often write down the lyrics to songs I am listening to on my i-pod.
"You are the weapon I choose", seems appropriate when juxtaposed with this gentleman. However I have since forgotten what it was I was listening to? I now discover that it was the one and only time I have listened to a Katy Perry album?

Preston

You are now arriving at Preston change here for all stations to Scotland and the South. This train goes on to Poulton le Fylde and Blackpool North.