North Side: Shoe Box Studio

On Sundays, Andy [Warhol] would buy an all-day pass and ride the streetcars all over the city, sketching the characters he observed. He soon discovered that when unwitting models realized they were being drawn, they became self-conscious, moved to another seat or left the trolley.

To avoid ending up with a batch of unfinished drawings, Andy combined disguise with the quick-sketch technique he had learned as a freshman. He took a shoe box, wrapped it up like a package, cut one end so it was hinged, placed a stack of paper and pencil stubs inside, then set forth on his forays to capture the gestures of his unsuspecting subjects. Andy referred to the resultant drawings as products of his Shoe Box Studio. (11)

arrative. utline. eighborhoods. ain Menu.