One of my favorite things to do of all things is to sit on a crowded subway or other public place and sketch candid portraits of my fellow passengers. Subways are the best because people tend to zone out and sit really still, and you get a chance to draw people from all walks of life in all sorts of positions. It’s really quite amazing.

Why do I love sketching candid portraits so much more than sketching, say, an art model or someone who’s posing for me? See, it’s like a game. In a public setting, people don’t know you’re sketching them, so they’ll move frequently. Every time someone moves, they’ll probably never return to that pose (or at least not exactly) so you have a limited time to sketch and you don’t know what that time is — so it makes it exciting! And so you try to find someone you think might hold still for a while…

There are a lot more reasons why I love it – I’ll explain some of those in my next posts.`