Postcards from the Train

Last week I took a train ride from Portland, Oregon to San Luis Obispo, California. Some folks might find the idea of a 25-hour train ride to be daunting. I found it to be a great opportunity to sketch out a heap of little postcards to send to friends!

 See more after the jump...

I failed to snap a picture of it before I put it in the mail, but as we went further south I added a flip-flopped foot sketch to the set to compliment the colder-climate boots.

 Yes, my pen was a little bit leaky.

 Interesting challenge, drawing snippets of landscape from the moving train. The "red soil/big sky" one benefited from extra texture from the motion of the train itself.

The portrait of the man in the hat is a fun story--I ate breakfast in the dining car at the same table as this gentleman, who turns out to be a musician named Mark Ross. He was heading to the start of a tour to celebrate Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday, and when he mentioned that the tour would go through Nevada City, I mentioned that I couldn't think of that town without thinking of the musician Utah Philips. "I used to play with Utah," said Mark; "In fact, this is his hat that I'm wearing right now!" I was a little bowled over by that news, and he graciously consented to let me sketch the hat on my train schedule while he finished his breakfast. When I got back to my seat, I adapted that sketch to the tidier postcard version.  

Trains are a delightful adventure. Especially when folksingers are playing in the observation car. (Here's the Tour schedule for Mr. Ross's "Hard Travelin' Tour.")