Drawings Of People On Trains And Buses: Makes Into Artwork Displayed in Singapore

Art at Bishan bus station, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem

I arrived at Bishan by underground train and I am surrounded by shoppers in a shopping mall. Not time or chance for art or creativity. Then I spot a series of drawings. What are they?

Answer

I think I know. I've seen the same or similar at Beauty World underground station in the long linkway where you walk from the MRT concourse to the base of the escalator taking you up to the buses. A group of people who draw fellow commuters on the underground.

SBS transit has grouped several drawings together. That is so reassuring to those of us who are afraid to draw. 

Problem

You don't want to draw in case the person being drawn objects.

Answer

You can take a photo and draw from it later.

Problem

You try take to photos of interesting people, but others step in the way.

Answer

Use the photos as a basis for a drawing.

Problem

You can't draw a good likeness.

Answer

Never mind if the face is not a good likeness. You are drawing a type of commuter, their body and clothes, a style of dress typifying a group, the student with bags and books, the shopper with shopping bags. If the person does not want a drawing which identifies them, your changing the face so that it is not recognizable, is all to the good. The person drawn will never know. You do not risk repercussions.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, illustrator.