My name is Albert and I paint on the train. I carry my brushes, canvas, colors, and all the paintings I’ve recently done. All in the palm of my hand. When I get to my stop I pack up and head out. There’s no easel, no sketchbook, no brushes or hassle. Just my finger, my phone, and the satisfaction of turning a basic sketch into a full-blown painting in the time it takes me to get from Grand Central to my stop.

I still carry a sketchbook around but it’s more out of habit than anything else. Now, when I’m on the move and an idea strikes, my first impulse is to grab my phone. Not my pencil. It has even worked its way into a few saves-the-day scenarios and, as a result, has become a major part of my Edelman career gear.

A few months back I was on a tight deadline and needed to come up with a couple of concepts for a client presentation by the morning. I headed home without ideas and nothing came to mind on my commute home or the rest of the night. The next morning on my train ride in with the clock counting down, my brain wakes up. Out comes the phone and I start working. By the time I hit my stop I’ve got two concepts.

My Creative Director loved the sketches so I exported them to my gallery and emailed them out to the team. They got dropped into the presentation, were sent off to the client. About a month later and after getting things tightened up the resulting ad was run in SPIN with several ads on SPIN.com as well.

This process has become part of my every day now. The ability to work and play anywhere and everywhere with ideas can’t be matched. Sorry, sketchbook, but I think our days are numbered.