One of my favorite things to do is wander around the city, photograph people or draw them. Yes, I know, all slightly stalker-ish activities. But I've always found endless fascination with people-watching. Yesterday, I did just that and thought I'd give you a visual recap of my day.
I spent a significant amount of time at Ground Support in Soho. My initial intention was to read and catch up on news but with my iPad, new Bamboo stylus, and Paper 53 app, I couldn't resist one of my all time favorite past times - sketching people. I later overheard the French girl I drew talk about how high rents, mentioning she took a Skillshare class about how to live rent free. Which I mentally noted was the same class I took. Small world.
My sketching was briefly interrupted by a celebrity sighting. I think that years or should I say, 10,000 hours of memorizing figures and faces in order to draw them, has given me excellent facial recognition. Can you spot him in the above, right picture?
One of the benefits of everyone being glued to their devices is that they sit relatively still for a few minutes, giving me enough time to draw them. Thank you internet. While I was admittedly tempted to sit across from MG and practice my sketching using him as a subject, I smartly chose to sit outside instead.
I've always felt like the relationship between subject and photographer / artist is an odd one. As the artist, I feel like I'm taking a little piece of that person without asking. I'm invading their privacy. I'm looking closely at the contours of their face, their expression, their mood. I can see how their clothing fits. What does it convey? Are they trying to fit in or stand out? Are they comfortable with themselves or uncomfortable being alone? As the subject, they may or may not know what I am doing. Do they let on? Are they flattered, self-conscious or annoyed? What do they think of me? Interestingly, none of these people seemed to care, if they even noticed at all.
My Wednesday journey didn't end there. I passed some very timely graffiti. And a woman with a beautiful dress.
I witnessed a lost pigeon flying into a café that had trouble getting out. So like MacGyver, I instructed the panicked staff to create a trail of crumbs out the door. Success!
And finally, to the delight of my social networks, I nearly ran into Professor Snape (
Alan Rickman) while embarrassingly singing along to
"Call Me Maybe" a little too loudly on my iPod. I'm pretty he rolled his eyes at me.
While my visual journey ends there, the city continued to shower me with surprises. I ran into an old colleague while having dinner with my friend, both who happened to be one of my photography subjects at some point. And just as I was walking with my friend telling her some insights into my dating history, I ran into a guy I went on a few dates with. The day was a good reminder that there's a world beyond the internet. Although the irony is not lost on me that I shared my journey in "real time" through my phone on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. But non-the-less, you never know what adventures are in store for you but they won't happen if you spend all your time in front of your computer.
