the subway

I take the subway to work. And then home. 1/2 hour down, 1/2 hour up. I used to read. Now I sketch. I pull out a sketch book and just go at it. I have different sizes of sketch books. The size I pick for the trip depends on how brave I feel about being seen drawing. Drawing them. It makes a lot of people nervous. When you keep staring at them. I have some nice little sketch books. They have black hardcovers on them.


I'm thinking of pasting fake book covers on them so they look more like novels. People barely notice I'm working in one of these little books. But still many commuters can tell somethings up. There's a lot of skritching and scratching going on. Plus I keep looking up and down and around like a worm hunting robin. There could be a cat around or something. That kind of nervous busy.


But I prefer bigger books so I can stretch out the lines and get into some nice scale. There's so little room for error. The little books offer very little space. You have to be spot on considering the people are always moving, getting off and being obscured by new riders.


But the little drawing part is like being in early grade school again, drawing tiny pictures in the margins, so tiny that when my teachers walked by they couldn't tell I was in the middle of these huge, epic battle scenes with tons of killing and bloody carnage. I'm really really good at small, but I have lots of big in me too. so I need the space on the paper. Anyways, I'm the teacher now, so, go Larry go.


Lately though I'm using a big pad. And everyone is noticing me and I'm just loving all the smiles. People wanting to look at what I'm doing and talk to me. I look in their eyes and see curousity and respect. I didn't see that before. Maybe It was always there before. Probably. but I couldn't see it. I could only see how bad my drawings were. I was ashamed of my work. I believed I was terrible at it. But they weren't and I'm not. Now it's fun again. Like it's supposed to be. Because drawing really is. Fun. That's why kids do it. They enjoy it. I lost that. Sleeping people are the best models.