By Carolina Quijano
Do you ever get the feeling that someone is staring at you? When you ride BART or Muni, do you sense eyes studying you? It’s probably just your imagination, but sometimes it’s Hamilton Cline. A web developer with an artistic side, Cline is an Academy of Art teacher who spends his morning commute drawing those around him. His distinctive sketches have earned a cult following on Reddit.
His criteria is straightforward. He looks for people who are preoccupied and stationary — nearly everyone on public transit, in other words — and spends five to 10 minutes sketching their caricature. His ideal subject is someone scrolling on a phone, reading a book, or just daydreaming. Everyone is fair game.
“Look at people on their phones next time you’re on the train,” Cline says. “They focus. They get a look of great concern and deep concentration. Tinder demands a lot — you don’t want any accidental right swipes. Sometimes I only have five minutes and then the person gets off the train or bus, so I try to sketch as much as possible, as gesturally as possible. And in caricature you exaggerate features, and so a still face can become a frowny face from a certain angle.”
Transit caricatures are only one part of Cline’s expansive, multimedia portfolio. He’s currently working on a project in which he creates live digital portraits that fuse computers with people. The ground rules are simple: only one subject per portrait, and only one portrait per week. Because of previous mentions on SFist and UpOut San Francisco, Cline has no trouble filling his calendar with eager subjects.
“Before the articles, I had a largely art friend clique — and my real friends — as Instagram followers,” Cline says. “After the articles, suddenly I had an influx of random but almost exclusively San Francisco-based people. It’s been awesome to interact with other locals, and I’ve made some friends, including people that signed up for the project that I now chat with regularly.”
For his new portrait series, Cline has people sit as motionlessly as possible while he spends three to four hours capturing their likeness on his Samsung Note 3. Once finished, he suggests going out for food or drinks to shoot the shit, only to part ways, like ships passing in the night. He’ll leave you the best memento ever: a one-of-a-kind replication of yourself. It may be time-intensive, but it’s cooler than any selfie you’ll ever take.
Speaking of selfies, Cline also posts a picture of himself to Instagram every day at 8:34 p.m. Every. Single. Day. His account also features daily caricatures alongside the usual fare of food porn and pretty sky shots. There are also a lot of behind-the-scenes pics that document Cline’s unusual working method.
When asked for art advice, Cline says simply, “Draw every day, even when you don’t feel like it.”
This makes me want to ride BART and Muni more, just in case Cline is hankering for a purple-haired subject. And if you’re wondering, he only has about two available slots remaining on his 2015 portrait project, so visit his website to learn more (and sign up!).
Images courtesy of Hamilton Cline
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