Drawing People on the Train Home From the SketchCrawl

On Saturday SketchCrawl North met up for a day of sketching at the Imperial War Museum in Manchester. On the way home, I took my sketchbook out again. 

We took the tram from the quay back to Manchester Piccadilly, then the train back to Sheffield:

John, as usual fell asleep before we got hom. I have so many sketches of him in this or similar positions!

You can see all the sketches I did at the museum here. Other people's work, plus details of all future events are posted on Sketchcrawl North's Facebook page.


If you are interested in sketching people in public places, you might be interested in this post with all my best hot tips!

Ediburgh Festival SketchBook

I took a little A6 sketchbook to the Edinburgh Festival this year, to record what I could as I went along. I was only there for a day and a half, including the time I was actually working, but it took 4 hours each way on the train, so plenty of people-sketching time:

Here are the drawings I did on my way: 

Here are some I did during my time at the actual festival (you can see more and read all about it on my main blog post):

And here are some I did on the way home again:

SCBWI Conference - a Journey in Pictures

I recently did a long train journey, down to Winchester, to spend the weekend at the SCBWI conference. Here's what I drew.

First leg - 1hr on the 15.23 from Sheffield to Birmingham:

Changing at Birmingham onto the 17.03 (except it's running 25 minutes late):


On the way back it's a mad dash and I'm just in time to catch the 17.50 back to Birmingham:

Two bits of bad news drop on me half way home. Firstly I find my hotel room key in my handbag (oops); secondly my connecting train at Birmingham is 20 minutes late, then 30, then 40... and finally arrives, 50 minutes late, so it's nearly 9pm before I get back underway (groan):

Whenever a train is late, twice the amount of passengers appear by magic from somewhere! It's so full I can't get near my reserved seat:

I get home just in time for bed at 10.45pm - what a marathon!

Train Portrait

I came across this train sketch that never made it to the blog. I thought you might like to see her - what a wonderful Roman profile!

Sketching People on the Nottingham Train...

Yes, I'm back on trains again. If you read my main blog, you'll know that I've been doing quite a few trips back and forth to Nottingham.


Here are some of the sketches that I couldn't fit into that post.


This woman above was strangely intense looking, mostly I think because of her quite harsh makeup.


I spent some time playing in Photoshop with this next one: yes, the seats really are that red!


Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play with colouring most of them yet. Maybe later. I always enjoy that bit and find it rather therapeutic. Actually, the whole 'sketching-on-trains things is rather Zen: such intense focus concentration, it's almost meditation!

If you are trying to draw people in public places, you might be interested in this post with all my best hot tips!

Drawing People on Trains Again...

I've been playing around in Photoshop again! You can see the original, unsullied, black and white pencil drawing on my main blog here.


There is an article with loads of hot tips on how to draw people in public places on the main blog here.

Colouring Drawings in Photoshop

Had a go at colouring the last train sketch I showed you, tinting it in Photoshop as I often do. I'm rather pleased with it. I like to choose just a couple of colours and leave a lot of white 'negative' space, rather then colour everything.


If you want hot tips on drawing people on trains, read this.

Train Portraits in Pencil

These are a couple of train portraits I did on my way home from Bristol this week.


If you'd like to see the ones I did on the way there, pop in on the post about my trip to Chewton Mendip Primary School.


If you want to try sketching people in public places, take a look at this post full of hot tips!

Drawing Train Portraits Again:

I'm sure you will have read my tales of woe, regarding my last batch of school visits, done under the influence of a lingering cold, and finally ending in laryngital-imposed silence!


Well, the good news is that I at least didn't get a runny nose til later, so I still managed to get quite a few sketches under my belt.


These are a few of the ones that I couldn't fit onto the regular blog. Mmmm - I just realised that they are all men. I must admit, I like the craggy, hairy, boney nature of men's faces. We girls can be a bit fresh and gorgeous!

If you want some hot tips on drawing people in public, check out this post.