Confronted by a passerby over my quick gesture drawings in the subway

I was doing some speed sketches of commuters during my daily ride. A man stopped and loudly objected to me 'capturing people without permission'. It escalated into a debate about public art versus privacy. Now I'm second guessing if I should continue this sketchbook series. Have others dealt with similar confrontations while sketching in public? I'd appreciate tips on navigating these interactions without compromising my creative process. My sketchbook is filled with these moments, and I don't want to censor them.

3 comments

3 Comments

wadec391mo ago

Damn, this is just another symptom of people forgetting public spaces are for sharing. Everyone's so paranoid about being recorded that they attack harmless art. Keep sketching, or we'll lose these raw glimpses of life.

the_mila1mo ago

Did you hear about my friend who was sketching commuters at the train station last week? He was just using watercolors to capture the morning rush, and this guy started shouting about privacy invasion! Leo had to calmly show his palette and paper to prove he wasn't filming, which totally killed his creative flow. Reading @wadec39's post reminded me how often artists face this nonsense now.

morgan_chen1mo ago

Watching this happen over and over just makes me sad. It's like we're training ourselves to see every stranger as a threat instead of just another person. That suspicion ruins the simple human act of noticing each other, of sharing a space. Your sketchbook proves people are still interesting, not just things to be paranoid about. Please don't let one guy's bad day stop you from seeing that.