Meet the girl who is secretly drawing people on the tube

There’s an underground artist sketching detailed portraits of the people she sits near on the tube.

Nottingham grad Mia Silverman, 25, spends her long commutes home drawing unsuspecting passengers on the London Underground.

Similar to the girl who takes photos of commuters in a Humans of New York way, advertising creative Mia draws her subjects instead.

She told The Tab: “I’ve always loved drawing people but there’s something about people on the tube that’s always interested me. We see so many everyday who we probably won’t ever see again.

“We have no idea what sort of the person they are or where there could be going. So over time I began making up what their name might be, where they’re traveling to or what they might be thinking about.”

Mia has been drawing people on the tube for the last few years since moving to London, but only recently starting blogging about it.

She used go to out and draw people on the Central line, but now does it on the Piccadilly and Victoria during her commute home.

Mia said: “I try not to let the person I’m drawing notice me, but people around me always do. Most people seem to find it funny so I get quite a lot of people giggling.

“One lady once told me to approach a good looking guy I was drawing but I got too shy.

“Only one man seemed to feel uncomfortable once he noticed I might be drawing him and he switched carriage straight away.”

Rather than approach subjects and ask questions about their lives, Mia usually prefers to come up with her own  backstories.

She said: “Unless I speak to them I’ll never know who they are, so it’s kind of fun to make it up – especially because on the tube you never know where someone is heading off to.

“I have a message in the sketchbook with my email address in case I lose it. I once left it on the tube and someone got it back to me which was amazing.

“My favourite person to draw was probably Big Ray, because he was so happy and instantly fell asleep when he put his hood up, which was brilliant. Aaron is another favourite too because I had a bit of a crush on him.”

Mia’s blog is called Doodles on the Underground.