unterwegs Archives - Page 8 of 16

U1 dance club unterwegs by Suzanne Forbes Aug 29 2018

The scene below was a classic Berlin moment: subway car dance party.

Just as the doors closed at Warschauerstrasse, two guys hopped on the car. As soon as it pulled out of the station, they cranked up their boombox and one was rapping while the other danced. Most people were dancing, watching or filming the scene, like the woman with the gorgeous Afro. But the guy next to her, with the model-type looks, remained still and his face was masklike in repose. I imagined he had just come home from a big shoot for Calvin Klein in Dubai and was completely exhausted…

Thank you, my Patreon Patrons, for making it possible for me to draw these Berlin moments and share these stories. People are so cool.

This young dad got off the S-Bahn with his family before I could draw the face of his sleeping baby.

The whole drawing was hard because I was so enchanted by the little girl and how pretty her dress was that I didn’t look that carefully at the handsome dad, who anyway was wearing all white which is hard as hell to draw!

Plus, they were only on the train for two stops. So I had to kind of fake it. I was planning to use photo reference of babies, although you know I never use photos for anything but objects. Babies are so challenging, though, I was willing to get some help. I let it simmer for a while.

Then this weekend we were riding the S-Bahn again, I was working on some other drawings in that sketchbook, and I had a flash of recall. So I drew the baby’s little face in two seconds from memory. I think they came out okay!