A great way to practice drawing is to draw people on the subway in NYC. Especially since I live in what’s considered the most diverse neighborhood in the city, I have a wonderful wealth of types of people to draw whenever I’m riding the train. Old people, young people, skinny, fat, happy, angry, bored – […]
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Something I always tell my students is, “you never know.” As in, you never know what making art and putting it out there in the world will create in your life. About two years ago, I received an email from a man named Josh. He had written a poem about the humanity on the NYC subway and […]
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I was heading into New York a few weeks ago and sat next to a group of guys that had obviously just ended a long night and were having quite a discussion, and a laugh. I couldn’t resist drawing this guy’s mustache. Greg Betza ©2017
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Janus, the Roman god of doors and gateways, is an appropriate figure to invoke on New Year’s Eve. (The month January gets it’s name from him.) Janus is traditionally shown with two faces: one looking back into the past, and the other looking forward into the future. These two New York City dudes on the […]
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I am always happier when those I am drawing don’t know that I am drawing them. Today however I thought for one moment, that this man was an older version of someone I had worked with long ago but couldn’t remember their name. Once we made eye contact, thankfully I was done with the drawing, […]
View post →A drawing for a Monday morning, man on a train. Greg Betza ©2015
View post →Sometimes, even in this city of 16 million, one person will stand out, or sit, and there is no one else. I often wonder if they feel as solitary as they seem for those few moments. As I finish I look up and realize that a few gazing eyes have been spying as I work, […]
View post →I don’t think I have posted this one yet. I was never really happy with the scale and design. A little harbor on the Hudson I pass often. Yet it always seems to turn up when I am looking through watercolors. Each time it grows on me a little more. For some reason I remember […]
View post →Another misplaced crowd drawing from the same time period as last weeks. This one of Grand Central from a few years back.—pre-Apple store and Shake Shack. Long before the “Gate of Hell” GCT was where i went to draw as many people as New York had to offer. Always a fun crowd.—Dominick
View post →As I realized I only had a brand new sketchbook (read blank) with me, and heading to a client on the 6 train, I reached a little deeper and found my Books of Heads. Pulling it from my bag I found my subject. Just as I lifted my pen a man stopped a foot in […]
View post →I don’t mind the cooler weather at all, nor a little rain (OK, a lot of rain, but it seems to have stopped)—the one great benefit of the strange weather is the strange weather. Weird grey fog rolling across the Hudson with pops of emerging greens and pink colors. A few of the thumbnails from […]
View post →Drawing of my morning commute in NYC! Pencil on paper. Eddie Peña
View post →Seriously, when did December arrive? And how is it Thursday already? For those those taking part in the coming holy day, I hope you are all finding a little peace as you scurry about. For those of you just waiting for it to pass, thank you for bearing with us crazy folk for a little […]
View post →Technically not one drawing (I could have gotten two posts out of this) but I knew when I drew these three that I would post them together. Two gentlemen got on the subway and set up their drums in the center of our car. It’s always the ones that play a different angle that you […]
View post →The feet were pretty good too, but the fact that it is noon and I am awake is the true test. Some sugary coffee, a lot of fruit and crossing my fingers that today will end much earlier than yesterday.—Dominick
View post →An older drawing I made on “track 24” at New York’s grand central terminal. TGIF. Greg Betza ©2013
View post →I couldn’t see this woman’s partner hidden behind another subway rider, but it was obvious they wanted to be as far from the man sitting next to them as possible. In fact they wanted to have the train to themselves it seemed.—Dominick
View post →I know most of us would probably say that our days do not go as planned. Or maybe it is just me. If I accomplish a fraction of what I set out to on most days, I would usually be pretty happy. Today in the midst of assignments and deadlines, the projects took a back […]
View post →Took the opportunity the other day to draw some of my fellow E-train riders. The woman on the right was very suspicious of me…she didn’t seem sure of what I was doing, but she knew she didn’t like it! The lady on the left was engrossed with her smart phone…similar to the woman in Margaret’s […]
View post →This young man’s oddly-shaped bag gave him away as a musician, and he was a joy to draw listening to his ipod, which undoubtedly bestowed some sublime pleasures onto his carefully tuned ears…
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