Taking the train

Moderately crowded trains can be good places to observe and sketch people. They tend to stay fairly still and they tend to keep themselves occupied, making it easy to make unobtrusive sketches.

I recently made a number of journeys to London, and these are some of my sketches made on one such (I have omitted the few that include potentially recognisable faces). It was a busy train; I stood all the way from Basingstoke (a little over an hour).

 

But my children were happy to sit on the floor.

The Making of Harry Potter - Studio Tour

Yesterday, we visited the Warner Bros site in Watford, where the sets, props and costumes from the eight Harry Potter films are presented to the public as a studio tour. There was a great deal to see, and while I had a sketchbook in my hand most of the time, I didn't come away with many worthwhile drawings - possibly because the subjects that suggested themselves were exceedingly large or intricate or both.

Steam Locomotive Oulton Hall

The Knight Bus

The inevitable gift shop at the end

A journey by train

I went to London by train on Wednesday. I started to draw the inside of the carriage. When we were approaching Basingstoke, I added the departing passengers.

This left a commuter working on his laptop. We didn't seem to stop long at the next station, Woking; the sketch incudes impressions from the train on both the outward and return journeys. The refreshment trolley came down the train and, after it had gone, I noticed the battered upholstery on one of the seats in front of me.

On the way home from London, I arrived at Waterloo with time to spare...

On the return journey, I drew a couple of fellow passengers.

The Mayflower at Newbury Racecourse

Newbury Racecourse has a railway station that is often used by mainline steam trains to take on water (it's not a busy station, and it has a convenient siding). Rose and I managed to be there while the Cathedrals Express, pulled by the Mayflower, was taking on water en route to Exeter this morning. This is my sketch from the platform on the other line.

It's a bit of a mish-mash, my sketch - there's Rotring ArtPen Indian ink, indigo calligraphy ink delivered via the Sailor pen, and Derwent Drawing pencils.