Subway sketchbooks

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Sorry for repeating myself, but my wrist is not doing so well. It is my right wrist, I am left handed, so it could be much worse, I guess. Drawing is no problem, photoshop is a bit painful, typing is not very pleasant.
So what can I do? I tried to write a little less, but then I got carried away and just wrote and wrote and wrote. So what about drawings...
Remember May last year?, or was it April, when I used Movable Type, and thus this blog to upload the little aero drawings in the catalogue section? I would post a picture a day for weeks. It was fun and it was not too self centered, I think. (I am not a friend of pure meme blogs I guess.)
So in order to expand the catalogue, and also in order to write a little less and still show more...
I will post my little Subway Sketchbooks. They are small moleskine sketchbooks and I use them to draw on the subway, mostly, every day. You will see that the lines are shaky and some shapes out of shape. This is not because I am completely losing control of the pen, but because of the movement of the train, or because I was standing while drawing, or because I was standing in a moving train while drawing sometimes in a packed train.
The first book to be displayed here, page by page is the one from November 2002. I will post 2 pages per day, there are about 76 pages with drawings... that would make 38 days. Some pages are just not as exciting as others (some are even empty!), and we have to get this thing going, so I will post 6 pages tonight. This is a bit of a visual adventure. I do not draw people on the subway. Expect some strange silly things, even though the whole trip starts off quite relaxed. So, "please step into the car, use all available doors, and... Please stand clear the closing doors! Next Stop, my private books you were not supposed to see."
(Oh, and I am working on more icons... they do not hurt and are great fun for everyone.)

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Witold Reidel has started posting excerpts from his subway sketchbooks in his weblog. The detail and care put into the drawings is wonderful. His style reminds me a little of some other artist whose name I can't recall at the moment. Richard Scarry, ... Read More

22 Comments

rawk! so glad you're sharing this stuff witold :)

they rawk allrighty.

: )
we are just leaving the station...

Wow, those sketches are fantastic! Can't wait to see the rest. Thanks for sharing!

Hurrah for more drawings! Looking forward to the rest.

what is moleskin ? what is a mole? :)
Cute happy drawings, are you making more icons ? if I send you a picture of my cat "Ouch" can you make her into a little icon? Stripey could use a friend on the desktop. :)

oh, Moleskine? I should have explained. It is the same little black book Amelie uses in the movie... Amelie.
I carry two versions with me all the time. One is for writing, one is for drawing. You will see in the upcoming postings that writing can get into the way of drawing sometimes, so now I separate them a bit. (I do draw in the text book and write into the drawings, of course, just more controlled. Oh boy.)
To find out more about Moleskine, check out moleskine.com. And if you would like to get one, the cheapest I have seen around New York are available atA I Friedman. (The small ones are $9.99... Kates Papeterie will sell you the same thing for $15, but in SoHo, just steps from the Apple store.) ; )

As for the "Ouch" icon... hmm... not sure I would be able to give te beauty of a specific cat justice. ; )
I am however working on friends for Stripey. Actually more than that... There is more fun in the works.
Yippiee... (Once I get good at this, we might try an "Ouch".)

Oh, these drawings are so nice! They should be in the New Yorker. :) I can't wait to see the rest...thank you for sharing.

Hey, how come your "remember me" cookie doesn't seem to work? I have to retype my name and info every time I post...

What kind of fountain pen do you use? Lovely little drawings! I am fond of sketching and writing with fountain pens -- they seem to give a better line.

funny you ask... I use a Montblanc, Meisterstück, to be exact, this model: Meisterstück Solitaire Sterling Silver Le Grand (in B.)
(Same Pen for about 10 years now, after my old one was lost in a cab in Toronto.)

Thank you! That's a beautiful pen. I fear getting a really good fountain pen, having lost so many competent, but inexpensive ones.

huh? 6?... b-b-but i only see 3.

cool sketches... even your train is happy... nice train teeth!... must brush daily with colgate plus.

uhhh, i think that building is givin' me the finger.

they're spreads 1-2, 3-4, 5-6...6 pages

Just testing to see if the cookie is working now...

tried to replace the entire head on the documents.
Hmm, will need to place a help plea on movabletype.org?
hmm...
why do the comment pop ups not remember user info, but individual entry pages do?...

Witold - really great sketches - perfect fodder for animation. Tip - dump the Moleskine. After carrying around mine for just over a year now I've noticed that it has started to split on the spine. Pages falling out everywhere. Go to the Art Students League on 57th Street and buy an Inspiral sketch book. Although larger than the Moleskine, it is refillable and has the most amazing paper quality - like butter - and bonus, it is cheaper. Check them out, you'll never go back!

-z

Yes, this is true, the spiral books are really great. A problem with all of the ones I have tried is the subtle variety in paper. One side of the page always seems to be a tiny bit smoother than the next. This is not noticable at all when using a pencil, but my pen just bleeds and then it does not, then it bleeds and then it does not. It is really the oddest thing.
I agree however that spiral books might be superior to anything that has any other binding.
The good thing about the Moleskines is that they have these rounded corners, the specially coated paper which allows me to actually do real tonality variation with a fountain pen. (Quite unusual) and then there is this pocket in the back. I try to finish a book in about a month, so they do not have time to fall apart on me... and I like the snapping sound the rubber band makes when I close the little guy.
All of the small drawings from 1999 are actually from a little spiral book. And I also use spiral books for other drawings. : )

I would like to walk up to all these strangers and offer to switch headphone jacks for a minute ambien or two, the idea being that each of us would pharmalogies suddenly know a lot more about the other past celebrex what they look like, which is all you can really propecia know about a stranger when you meet them (aside soma from maybe cues you get about where you see paxil them at, and inferences based on how they're vioxx dressed, etc., but those are only generalizations cialis at best, and stereotypes at worst). The downsides tramadol are legion, of course. First of all, I'm just zyrtec

"You will see that the lines are shaky and some shapes out of shape. This is not because I am completely losing control of the pen, but because of the movement of the train, or because I was standing while drawing, or because I was standing in a moving train while drawing sometimes in a packed train.
"
So the train is drawing also :)

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This page contains a single entry by Witold published on January 28, 2003 2:14 AM.

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