WORK IN PROGRESS

Work in Progress is the debut memoir of Devon Rodriguez (One World, Sept. 29, 2026). He grew up in the Bronx, drew commuters on the New York City subway, and became the most-followed visual artist on social media. Reviewers describe a chronological, unpretentious account: an abusive South Bronx childhood, a ninth-grade art teacher's assignment to sketch subway riders, years of quiet craft-building before a 2020 TikTok drawing video went viral, and the habits and mindset that carried him through. Publishers Weekly calls it a solid, comprehensive self-portrait that inspires. Kirkus calls it deeply affecting. The practical content sits in his method: drawing from life every day, treating the sketchbook as the one controllable thing in a chaotic life, learning from whoever will teach him, and building in public.

Build a daily practice

1. Use a public setting as free life-drawing practice. Rodriguez's ninth-grade art teacher told him to ride the subway and sketch the commuters across from him. The variety of faces, all those different cheekbones and foreheads and mouths, made it a good place to sharpen portraiture fast. (source, source)
2. Treat the page as the one thing you control. Rodriguez calls a blank sketchbook page the thing he could control in an otherwise chaotic life, and drawing the refuge that saved him. When circumstances won't hold still, a small domain you control keeps you steady. (source, source)
3. Build a drawing from simple shapes, then layer in detail. He blocks in an oval head, a blob of a torso, rectangles for crossed legs, then adds shading and small touches like a sneaker logo or strands of hair. Before the pandemic he spent a month on an oil painting. Now a sketch takes half an hour, so he gets far more reps. (source)
4. Set a daily output target. After his first subway clip took off, Rodriguez committed to one pencil drawing a day. That cadence grew his following into the millions, not one lucky post. (source)
5. Show the process, not just the finished piece. His finished paintings got modest views. A clip of the sketching itself hit roughly five million, and the follow-up around eighteen million. What audiences wanted was the making, in roughly twenty-second edits shot on a phone. (source, source)
6. Close the loop by giving the work away. He hands the finished portrait to the person he drew and films their reaction. That became his signature format. He's given away pieces worth $500 or more, taking the craft and the exchange over the sale. (source, source)
7. Approach anyone; assume every story is worth hearing. Rodriguez picks subjects almost arbitrarily, whoever looks cool or different, and says you can learn from anyone. Growing up around all kinds of people in the Bronx, he says, made starting conversations easy. (source, source)
8. Let the conversation overturn your first impression. A face pulls him in; the story usually complicates the read. Heavily tattooed subjects told him strangers rarely speak to them. His most-viewed video, about 170 million views, was a face-tattooed man who turned out to be exceptionally warm. (source, source)
9. Follow your own interest instead of copying whoever's successful. His advice to aspiring artists: find what actually fascinates you. Real passion supplies its own drive and needs no prodding from outside. Don't imitate him or any other creator. (source)
10. Keep going without encouragement, and take the mentors who show up. His mother discouraged his early drawing and destroyed a piece of it. He kept drawing. Teachers, professional artists, and people he happened to meet recognized the talent and nurtured it. Reviewers stress that years of quiet practice came before the viral moment. (source, source)
11. Capture raw material as you live it. Rodriguez started jotting memories into his phone in his mid-teens. Years later that running record became the groundwork for the memoir. Notes are cheap and immediate, and they pile up into a usable archive. (source)