Behind every great subway sketch there's a gesture drawing....

I'll let you in on a little secret... it's HARD drawing on the train. Most people who ride the A Train "know" me by now, and as soon as I come out with the sketchpad, people start moving! LOL! This has gotten so frustrating that I've found that I need to do a very quick 30 second gesture drawing just to catch them and then go back and refine the drawing in my studio, or fro the remainder of the ride.

One of the great things about The NCN (The National Caricaturists Network at www.caricature.org, ) is their annual Speed competition that's held every year. I NEVER win this thing(sob, sob sob) but it has given me an appreciation for drawing FAST getting in essential details and streamlining features. If you compare the two drawings, I've only deviated a little as far as exaggeration goes, but still have the same basic info based on my gesture drawing blueprint.

Gesture drawing is a basic skill that all artists should practice all of their lives. Animators swear by it for helping them to get "life" into a pose, and I agree that it should be used as more than a "warm up" as most artists use it for.

I'll post other before and after sketches in future posts.

In case you're wondering the medium I used, Its an old reliable #2 Pencil, a 6B Woodless pencil, and drawn on 8X!! Cardstock.