Portrait Party Prep

For the last few years the NYC Urban Sketchers plan a date for a "portrait party." Although this isn't "urban sketching" the group loves this activity. This is the first year I am participating. I usually feel that if I'm going all the way into the city from out here (1 1/2hrs each way) I want to sketch the city, not just people. Everyone says how much fun it is, so this year I decided to give it a try. There are over 60 people signed up and the group is divided into groups of 12 I think. The number of people that can participate is limited so once the quota is reached nobody else can participate unless someone drops out. Everyone is given 9 x 12 watercolor paper for the portraits. In each group each person poses for 10 minutes...YES ONLY 10 MINUTES, and you have to sketch them in that time frame. You do one sketch of each person in your group. You need to work in a medium that can be seen from a distance and at the end of the entire session (you have to stay to the end) all the sketches are arranged in a grid for display.

It was suggested that newbies develop a strategy for how they are going to do this. Some of the other sketchers that have participated in the past gave us advice and described their method of approaching this 10 minute sketch. I have been practicing a bit...but not from life. I downloaded photos of people I know onto my computer. I crop the photo, set the timer for 10 minutes and sketch away. What I have figured out for a method that works somewhat for me is I sketch the person's face with a water-soluble graphite stick. I begin with the eyes and nose and work out from there. Then I go over that sketch with a Tombow brown marker which bleeds, adjusting the sketch as needed. I add water to blend the ink and graphite for shading, and then I add watercolors for skin tones. I did these on just copy paper from my printer so they have buckled a lot. I'm trying to do a few every day so the 10 minutes won't seem too daunting. My only hope is that the graphite and marker will blend as well on the watercolor paper we use. I still have almost a week to practice since the portrait party is Feb 3.

Here are some of the 10 minute portraits I've done. For the most part there is some glimmer of the person in the quick sketch...some more than others.

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