In a crowded MTR train, some passengers read. Some are sleeping. Some are listening to their earphones. But Charlotte Lui stands in the corner, holding a small notebook as she sketches Hongkongers on the move.
For over a year, she has been sketching the everyday lives of people on the city's trains. Drawn in black marker pen, her cartoons are posted on her Instagram page, "Moving Drawing". She has worked with other artists and held her own exhibitions.
But a few years ago, she was just another commuter on Hong Kong's railway system.
At first, she would still draw before going to work. But when she started a new job last year, she had to spend 1½ hours each way between Diamond Hill and Aberdeen. Charlotte felt like she had lost her personal time for drawing – until she chose to use her daily commute to sketch what she saw.
"So one day I just started to make it into a habit," she explains. "At the start of Moving Drawing, I just drew anything I saw that day."
Students using backpacks to anchor themselves to a train's poles, and passengers snoozing against a pillow while standing, are just some of the weird scenes that have inspired her fun sketches.
As she became more creative with her drawings, she began using her imagination to create witty ideas about what she saw.
Now, she is drawing strangers on the train and giving them the portraits. It is not easy, because people often leave the train in a hurry. So she has had to learn to draw more quickly!
