I vote for
madynora's intricate chocolate creation. No deep explanation necessary, it's just awesome! I want to hold this in my hands, take a close look at the detailed brushwork and then after a while OMNOMNOM cookie monster mode, devour it all at once.
zeogold: I'd commission you for some artwork if I weren't so dang broke.
Thanks :)
Klumpen0815: I'd love it if you made a webcomic.
You could make your own handmade font via
http://www.paintfont.com/ to fill the bubbles without losing the time for text, I know a webcomig where it's done and it seems to work pretty well.
This could be a handy tool not only for convenience but because my handwriting is at times undecipherable. Even I can often not read it but fortunately I remember what I wrote even if I can't make out the actual letters.
Klumpen0815: I vote for awalterj's portraits and would like to know, how many of those were staring at their smartphones (and are probably still doing so).
Thanks a bunch! I can't give you a precise answer because I can't remember exactly who was staring at their smartphones and who wasn't and some people were just using their smartphones to listen to music while others were looking at the screen all the time and yet others were chatting from time to time and looked out the window when they weren't typing, and so on. Many combinations so no easy way to categorize. Anyway, I put an orange dot under the portraits of all the people who iirc were visually distracted by their smartphones for a good portion or even the majority of the sketching duration. Roughly a third of the subjects I'd say.
I don't purposely choose people who are busy on their phones as they don't necessarily move less and one would only have portraits with people looking down which would be boring as you can't see the eyes that way and getting a likeness is more difficult then (even on photos it's harder to recognize people when you can't see the eyes). I try to keep a good variety, occasionally choosing a lively person for extra challenge and sometimes I choose the subject at random as in whoever is in range first. Sometimes I ask first but only if I feel they'll say yes or if they already saw me drawing someone else in which case they can see that the other person survived the ordeal without damage so there's no really good reason to say no. Asking for permission has the benefit that I know how many minutes I have for the sketch but it doesn't necessarily mean the person will move less. On the contrary, they might talk to me and that divides attention, slowing drawing speed. Any way one looks at it, it's always a trade-off with all these factors.
If someone is staring at their phone all the time it adds a rather large bonus to my "stealth rating" but I'm not super hardcore concerned about getting discovered because drawing people isn't forbidden by law so while I try to be discreet by only moving my eyes and not my entire head and averting my eyes when people look in my direction, I try not to emit "creepy sneaky guilty stalker" vibes because (believe it or not) some people seem to have a 6th sense of sorts and notice when you're staring at them in a budget-ninja style. But if I'm relaxed as if I were at home drawing a defenseless little apple still life then for some reason I can sit right in front of someone and they often don't notice. Even if they notice that I'm looking, they mostly don't know why and since they move their entire head to look at me whereas I only avert my eyes which is a lot quicker, it's harder for them to catch me in the act.
Due to some odd unwritten societal contract, the majority of people won't ask you straight away what you're up to because if it turns out you were up to nothing at all then it's awkward for them and most people are too shy, guarded or inside their commuter bubble to want to start a conversation with a stranger. Being female would be an advantage because it decidedly lowers the risk of people feeling needlessly threatened but being male adds the bonus that conversation is opened on you less readily and less frequently, even or especially when it's being noticed that you are looking.
Sometimes I manage a total poker face which leaves suspicious people none the wiser and other times I can't prevent myself from smiling in which case I consider my cover blown and casually inform the subject that they are being drawn, using the same tone of voice that your boss uses when he tells you that you're getting a raise. And quite often, it is other passengers/bystanders who blow my cover by commenting on my drawing or asking me questions about it. Whether they do that intentionally or not is irrelevant imho, I just casually answer and keep doing what I'm doing as if my cover hadn't been blown. I never ask the subject if it's ok to continue though because once I've started, I'll keep going until I'm finished or the person exits the train or I reach the outer limits of my transportation pass covered area, kinda like when the electronic ankle monitor put on by a parole officer sets off an alarm.
Once I'm finished, I often show people the drawing because for the most part it makes them happy (or it is relief that I'm not a serial kidnapper etc)
