Happy Easter, everyone!
I went home to Pawtucket for Easter weekend, and it's been wonderful. I just ate the best lunch ever, courtesy of Mama-Bear. Best of all, is the leftovers wrapped up for me to take home to Boston for supper tonight <3 Joy!
So, what I really wanted to write about in here was about observation.
I know many of my fellow illustrators do it, but have you ever just sat somewhere really busy and just observed the nature of people, maybe sketched them out a little bit? It's wonderful to do, really. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good sketches, save for one, which is more of a stylized caricature that I'd like to take to a finish some time for...something. It was of this girl that was dressed in very trendy clothing...but her hair...she had them in braided pigtails that made her look like she was six. Gobs of mascara...and pigtails.
I don't get it, either.
In the hour I had until my train came, I observed some interesting things at South Station. For instance, the conductors:
Employee: Hey Bob! How are ya?Bob the Conductor: You know me, livin' the dream!I don't know why I found this quote terribly amusing, but I was laughing to myself for a good three minutes. I also found that I love gentlemen in dress shoes. There's just something about the conductors being in formal black dress shoes that made them more wonderful to observe. They, like me, also like to observe people in the train station. They scope for the suspicious, they scope the attractive, and sometimes they just watch people to watch them.
There was one guy they did observe as suspicious. An older man with a cane was harrassing two black businessmen who were sitting quietly to themselves. I don't know the extent of the conversation, as I was too far away to hear anything, but I noticed that they were so bothered by this guy (although they were polite about respecting his opinion), that they got up and moved away from him. Afterwards, when two of the security guards came to stop the older man from being offensive, they discovered that he had been drinking and had a huge bottle of vodka that he was hiding in a trash bag. He was promptly removed from the area, but then tried to come back again later and was quickly ushered back out again.
The conductors next to me commented about how wobbly the man was, and that when he was being ushered out, that he was going to fall down the escalator. I felt a little sorry for the guy. Especially when, within a minute of leaving the table, a group of high schoolers came and usurped his table, and promptly threw away whatever meal he had that had been left behind at the table.
But aside from that dismal observation, there were other things. There were countless people on cell phones, talking to loved ones, clueless babies bundled to the max in strollers and toddling around, kids exaggerating their steps and dancing while they walked, David Ortiz look-a-likes, chair gatherings, bomb-sniffing dogs, older couples who curled close to each other, boys in tight skinny jeans and girls with tanned skin and Ugg boots, stretch pants that tucked under the heel, "ghetto" teens carting paisley luggage...
...and pigeons.
I think the most fascinating thing about South Station is the pigeons. The poor things wander in to keep warm and maybe find the occasional nibble of crumbs or whatever some stranger feeds them (even though the signs say not to feed them). What I don't really understand is the people scared of them. Two teenage girls were so petrified of one small little pigeon getting a crumb near their table, that they actually
leapt from their seats to get away from the bird, and ended up losing their seats to a group of high school boys.
There are also the "brave" pigeon chasers, a.k.a. small children. I use the term brave loosely, as the children are only brave if they scare the bird first, and from behind their tailfeathers. Should said bird suddenly turn around and try to fly in their direction, the pigeon chaser suddenly feels chased, and lets out a rather petrified screech. The chased becomes victorious.
I think when I get a chance, I'll illustrate some of these incidents. Especially the pigeon chasers. Kids chasing pigeons only to freak out are hilarious.
With that note, Happy Easter everyone!
