My husband and I saw this sweet couple on the U-Bahn on Valentine’s Day.

The elegant lady was giving her partner a comforting touch on the shoulder. She noticed I was drawing them and I gave her my card, I hope she sees this!

Ten years ago Brody, a cool person I knew in the Bay, did a Grayscale costume and makeup for Santacon.

It was so incredibly good that I have thought of her look (also known as Desaturated Santa) every time I see or type the word “Grayscale” ever since. I thought of her when I drew this grayscale unterwegs on gray paper! You really don’t see anyone reading a full-size or even a tabloid size newspaper on the subway anymore, and I miss it.

I am conducting an occasional Pencil Cleanse.

Before I started working as a courtroom artist and then in comics, there was a period, ’89 to ’91, when I carried a sketchbook everywhere but only a mechanical pencil to draw with. All of my drawings were pencil only, or ballpoint if I ran out of leads. And they were great! They had a slow magic and a loose rhythm that my faster, rough-pencil-sketch-which-is-immediately-inked drawings of today lack.

I’d love to take a month to draw ONLY in pencil, but I just don’t dare. I don’t want to lose the chance to document a great performer because I can’t move fast enough with pencil. So instead I am doing pencil-only drawings when the stakes are low, like with unterwegs.

IT TAKES SO LONG!!!

This one is in process, with a couple hours on it already, and hundreds of corrections, perspective adjustments, and scale fixes. And yet it doesn’t look like much, right? It is the bones and vitamins of drawing, though.

You can see hundreds more unterwegs drawings celebrating life on Berlin’s public transit system here. All unterwegs drawings are courtesy of my Patrons on Patreon whose monthly financial support allows me to make this free art available!