u/quickdrawbandit

84/10,000

Slowly making my way through the Parisian phase of this sketchbook. I could spend all day drawing at the cafes

78/10,000

I’m noticing the pages where everything clicked and the ones where I was just chasing it. The faces that landed are the ones I didn’t second-guess.

72/10,000

Drawing with a pen is a double-edged sword for me. On one hand, it pushes me to be extra observant, but once the marks are made, I have no choice but to move forward and adapt.

I had a great time sketching everyone enjoying music in the garden at the Norton Simon Museum. It was a lovely golden hour!

Getting easier to look back at these without cringing. That might be the truest sign of progress.

I'm starting to recognize which ones I was nervous to draw and which ones I wasn't.

Most, if not all, of these people were drawn at cafes in Paris. I have not experienced cafe culture quite like this before nor have I since.

Extracting these portraits from my sketchbooks has been nothing less of therapeutic. At this rate it’ll be years til I reach my goal but it’s the journey that counts…right?

42/10,000
I’ve noticed I draw better sometimes when I'm not thinking about drawing.

36/10,000

Public transit will always be one of the best places to draw people. Everyone is already defaulted to waiting so they are at ease, sitting, waiting for the train to arrive.

It's always a fun exercise to remember the moment when each of these was drawn. Even though these sketches are from a year ago, I remember each one vividly.

30/10,000

Here’s another set of portraits from my time in London. It's always fun to look back at these drawings and remember exactly where I captured each one.

> Slides 2 and 6 were drawn on the tube.
> The rest were sketched in various pubs.

I love drawing musicians because they expect the attention and that means I can step just a bit more time observing.

I drew these portraits while riding the London Tube. Sleepy people make for ideal subjects when drawing portraits, there's zero chance of awkward eye contact and usually very little movement!

Here are 6 more portraits I wanted to share. Most of these were drawn at the Philadelphia airport. However, the last one in this set was sketched during breakfast in London. I remember being super jetlagged at the time, but that’s not an excuse to not draw!

I found a way to extract all the portraits from my sketchbooks and I am excited to share them. These 6 portraits were captured in the Philadelphia area, from coffee shops to Citizens bank Park.

For some context, I’m going in chronological order starting with my first sketchbook from May 2025 roughly a year ago. This was before I found my favorite brush pen. More to come!

I've always wanted to showcase just the portraits from my sketchbooks, but it was too much work to clean up the files. So, I built a tool to extract all of them! With this new workflow, I can streamline the process and share them with you all.

So far, I've processed 3 sketchbooks and it's generated 497 portraits. I'll be sharing 6 portraits at a time, in chronological order, starting with my May 2025 sketchbook. It's crazy that it's already been a full year!

It's rare for me to sketch someone so still, not engrossed in their laptop or phone. I really love this drawing—especially the deliberate lines around her face. What are your thoughts?

I only had enough time to sketch a table right next to me at dinner. The noise of the restaurant drowned out their conversation but the vibe was tense.

Drawing people deeply engrossed in their phones is one of my favorite subjects. It’s great because I don’t have to worry about awkward eye contact. Plus, these people often sit incredibly still for such a long time, which gives me plenty of time to observe them carefully.