Some of my portraits (second row from the top). This was my first attempt at portraiture.
Last weekend I attended NYC Urban Sketchers annual portrait party. The event took place at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. I heard about the event from my instructor at Pratt who was one of the organizers, and decided it would be a great way to jump into portraiture (something I have always been afraid of).
When I arrived there were hundreds of participants divided into groups of 12 sketchers each. In each group, sketchers took turns drawing each other for 10 minutes each for a total of two hours of drawing (and one ten-minute stint of posing).
The organizer (my Pratt instructor) warned that it would feel like a marathon. I agree that it was taxing to focus for two hours without a minute’s break, but for me it was far more enjoyable than running a race - but maybe that’s because I hate running, and am slowly discovering that I love sketching.
Some portraits of me, drawn by the other artists. So inspiring to see such different styles.
Looking back at the experience I think I would try to go even more bold next time- maybe outlining my pencil lines in a heavy ink and and working harder to include shading for the shadows on the face - something I find very difficult to see, but hopefully with practice it will come more easily.
In the end we laid all of our portraits out in a grid so that each row showed all of one artist’s work, and each column showed all of the portraits painted of the same model. It was so inspiring to see the different styles - some gestural, some detailed, some bold and colorful, and some delicate. Each portrait caught some essential quality of the model, and the experience made me less afraid of drawing faces and eager to draw as many as possible in the coming months.
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