Tokyo Train sketches

I'm back in Tokyo throughout this month, and, as is my habit, have been drawing people on trains again.

As I'm staying in a central part of the city this time there are not so many long commuter train journeys, so sketching has been sporadic, on short journeys with bustling trains, when people move, get on and off more frequently, and (in many cases) block my view of my drawing model. So I'm getting a lot of false starts like this!

You've just got to get on with it.... and be quick!!

However, when the opportunity arrives, some sitters are remarkably good models, especially when they're half asleep...

Posted 11th July 2019 by John Shelley

Labels: Japan sketching tokyo train sketches

View comments

Dec

Riding the Waves

Since shifting my blog platform to the in-built system on my Wix-run site, I've left this Blogger blog largely untouched, however I notice the imported images from here lost some quality in the transfer, and all the image captions were lost, so I'd like to keep this old ship afloat!

Here's some nautical themed images from the archive!

Jan

Blog Migration

Dearest readers, I have some news to announce!

Blogger has been the home for my blog for many years, but with a new website – it’s time for a new blog too.

Jan

Happy New Year 2020!

Happy New Year of the Rat everyone! It’s a delicate new decade, promising lots of challenges, let's keep it in safe hands!

Things have been slow and steady here, the last weeks up to Christmas I've been tied up with house repairs and curating Pictures at Play, the biennial SCBWI exhibition in London. But from the new year onwards it will be solid focus on new ideas and art projects.

Nov

Inktober 2019 - the last 16 drawings

Here are the rest of my Inktober drawings for 2019.

During the month, though I never seemed to have much time for contemplation, I was repeatedly asking myself, where is the essence of what I do? How can I connect with that mysterious flow of creativity, when things seem to just come together, almost by themselves, without me having to think too deeply - let the rhythm flow.

That is the goal of all our art of course, and one of the attractions of Inktober.

Nov

Inktober 2019 - The first 15 drawings

It's that time of year again, and once more I entered the maelstrom of feverish scribbling that is Inktober. Here are the first fifteen of my daily drawings (Days 16-31 to follow).

If you've not heard of Inktober before, it's a social media challenge, where participants create and post online a drawing made in ink (of whatever kind), one a day throughout the month of October, using the hashtags "Inktober" and "Inktober2019".

Jul

More Tokyo train travellers

I'm approaching the end of our current month-long visit to Japan, so here are some more train sketches.

For me it's been a month basically looking up old contacts, finding the current buzz of what's going on for illustrators, and peering through the busy noise of central Tokyo, where I'm staying.

Usually nowadays I stay in areas outside the circle of the Yamanote line, though I was based within it for over half the 21 years I was "permanently" living here.

Jul

More Train Snippets!

Some more train sketches from my current sojourn in Tokyo.

I've been here over two weeks now and it's been a remarkably wet and cool July until now, the rainy season just carried on and on, with some significant downpours adding to the general drizzle. The cooler than expected weather meant getting about town was more efficient (if you could avoid being poked in the eye by umbrellas) but the general gloom was definitely sense in the mood of train passengers....

Jul

Tokyo Train sketches

I'm back in Tokyo throughout this month, and, as is my habit, have been drawing people on trains again.

As I'm staying in a central part of the city this time there are not so many long commuter train journeys, so sketching has been sporadic, on short journeys with bustling trains, when people move, get on and off more frequently, and (in many cases) block my view of my drawing model. So I'm getting a lot of false starts like this!

You've just got to get on with it....

Jul