[FallDamage]

What's a good circumstance/ pretense to discreetly draw from life without looking like a total weirdo checking people out with your sketchbook? I find that even in the mall or the library, people tend to notice pretty quick a guy sketching because its fairly rare. I've never seen anyone else doing it, so I assume that either life sketchers in hfx are either better ninjas than i am or have no shame.

Is there a better way, or do you just do it and accept that ppl will give you awkward/ dirty looks?

Right now I'm peering out my window at construction guys at work.

They've noticed...

I think they might have the wrong idea... it's awkward.

[notspecialist]

i know just what you mean, but haven't got any good answers for you. my work around was to draw all of my teachers/anyone talking in front of my class rooms. since i was expected to look at them and take notes anyways, nobody ever cared. i suppose now that i'm outa school, i will have to think up some new methods

maybe wear sunglasses or find some sneaky corner of the coffee shop. or just relocate frequently and focus on quick gesture drawing. or just get over it and give them dirty looks right back
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[Max]

Yup. same here. It's really irritating sometimes.
Drawing your classmates is really nice though, that works best imo.
And maybe really take gigantic sun glasses with you
Or get ninja skillz !1

[Jabo]

Yeah it's weird. I was sketching in a park on Monday. And even though I was just sketching the ducks hanging around on the lawn, people gave me looks. Not so important when it's just people, but when the 200 pound boyfriend of a pretty girl is giving you angry looks, it's... irritating at least.
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[notic]

same problem here..

i usually sketch away on the subway, i prefer to sketch people who are busy with something, like reading. people in sweden are usually way too scared of confronting others though, i suppose that's a good thing, or i'd be having a lot more bruces than i do.

the problem with life drawing is that the artist way of looking at something would be considered staring in other contexts..

friends and family are better that way, but as sargent said:

"If you paint your friends, they and you are chiefly concerned
about the likeness. You can't discard a canvas
when you please and begin anew -- you can't go on
indefinitely until you have solved a problem."

i think using sunglasses is a great idea, and if there's no sun, no problemo, you can also bring a stick, and people will think "oh, look at that poor blind guy trying to draw, we shouldn't stare at him"

[Petri.J]

[eyewoo]

Use the situation as an opportunity... Glance once at you intended subject matter. Try and take in its totality and then draw it without looking back. It might be awful at first, but keep it up and you will develop vision muscles.
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[notic]

petri

eyewoo, that's interesting.. i remember reading about the old masters doing just that, can't remember where. They would observe people very intensely by first looking, then closing their eyes and trying to picture the image, then open their eyes again to complete the parts that were left out.

by repeating this process you should be able to remember inner images quite good..

i have tried it sometimes, not with much success unfortunately, but some. i suppose this is something you need to work hard on.

[Drew]

I think it's inevitable that sometimes people will notice. But what I do is pick a crowded area with people that are concentrating on something. A food court at a mall works well. With so many people around, it's less likely that you'll be noticed in the crowd. You can sit down with dozens of people in front of you and pick your targets. It should be easy to find people who aren't facing you, or if they are, they're sitting with someone else who holds their attention.

Also, I draw two or three people at once. So if one subject takes a break from reading his book and looks around for a minute and is likely to spot me, I switch to another person who is in the middle of a conversation. Then when that person stops talking to take a bite of food and people watch, I switch back to the guy who's reading his book.

And similar to what eyewoo said, quick glances work best. Sometimes intense watching is great, but you also need to learn to take in important information quickly and accurately.