People

During my few months of blogging inactivity, I was still scribbling away on my iphone, drawing the faces and figures of people while I waited for a tram stop or at a train station or on a street corner. I do enjoy the evolution of habits. Sometimes I only want to draw in many thin lines, other days few, and yet another moment a single thick line line where I might have another day used plenty. There is also something very enjoyable in the study, the breaking of a habitual way that a face is drawn (first nose, then another day first lips or the right eye).
Usually I make faces on the iphone. The other day, I saw a woman with a pendulous heavy body leaning weighted upon her thighs. Which then led to drawing some other full figures while standing at the local train station. A joyous woman swung by, and then a young woman in tights with a  large bag on her shoulders stopped to look at the train ticker.

I'm still here!

I've been quite busy the past few months of blogging and tweeting inactivity. I do have a few things that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks. Some Israel drawings, a few portraits, some oil paintings of hands, and tomorrow I'll be live drawing the TEDxCERN event. It will be very exciting and fun. I'll be at the back of a room of 1,000 people all seated in a giant tent on the CERN campus, drawing the ideas of the speakers as they're spoken. A much more cerebral reportage than I'm accustomed to. This should be an incredible challenge, as well as a lot of fun. There won't be any chances to correct my work, so it will all be out there, my thoughts and interpretations, in the moment. And then at each break 1,000 people stream past my work and see what was just drawn. No pressure! I hope that I have fun, that this jet-lag clears up a little more, and that everyone enjoys what I create. Check it out at my twitter account, @Millerocity and TEDxCERN @TEDxCERN. The show begins at 1:30pm and ends at 5:30 central european time (NYC friends, subtract 6 hours). We'll see if we can link it to my Facebook as well for those who know me there.

Until then, here are some portraits that I drew on my iPhone. It's great fun to be able to think and study via different pathways. Sometimes working through a big idea or story, other times a portrait or 4 of people on a train.

Hrvatska

While in Zagreb for the holidays, I spent a fair amount of time listening to Croatian, and only understanding random words. Since I wasn't fully engaged in the conversation, I'd take out my iphone and do a few drawings.

Grga has very carefully tousled hair. This is seen from the back, while riding a tram.

A smile is a frequent feature on Zvonimir's face. 

This aunt enjoys expanding upon truth to the point of absurd, humorous fabrication, and passing it off as gospel.

Another view of 'Aunt Truth'.

Ana's mother, a woman of great patience, intelligence, and discipline.

Choral Singing in Zagreb

The holidays are over, but drawings still remain in my phone, which I'd like to share. While in Zagreb, we went to a church to hear choral singing. While sitting in the hard wooden pews, I decided to do a few drawings. Working within the limitations of a small screen made it really conducive to a faster, more impressionistic approach. Next week I'll post some portraits I did there.

iPhone Drawings

I recently became a member of Urban Sketchers in Switzerland. Urban Sketchers is a community of people who, like myself, enjoy drawing on location. This morning I shared a few of my iPhone drawings with them, and I'd like to repost what I shared there, here.

http://switzerland.urbansketchers.org/2013/11/iphone-portraits.html

Back where it all began

This blog started with an iphone, and my Q train commute to work. The iphone was my brother's old phone, and wasn't connected to a network. It was there only for drawing. On days I didn't bike to work, I'd stand or sit, and surreptitiously draw my fellow commuters. I was briefly back in the states last week, and again spent some time on the subways, drawing on my iphone. This time, it was my father's old iphone, and it's been unlocked so it actually now is used as my European network phone, too. 

NYC is notorious for not feeling sacred or sentimental about structures. I'd say that in the picture of NYC, the structures are the frame, and the people are the content. Here are a few faces from the NYC subways, the people that are the brick and mortar of NYC, drawn with thumb and iphone.