216 - Doodle Portraits

Drawing every week socially - at a local figure drawing session - reignited my interest in drawing people, and inspired me to take on a new challenge: live portrait drawing. I wanted to keep the drawings as free as possible stylistically (and to make it sound catchy), so I called it 'Doodle Portraits'. 

Experience

The first location was Sonder Coffee Shop - a relaxed local cafe with two floors. I asked for permission to draw there, and advertised it locally. I made it free, because I needed to practice my drawing style. It was a great success and fully booked. However, I did offer prints as an option people could purchase, and I managed to sell some.

I was surprised to discover that people came for the experience as much as for the finished drawing. They enjoyed the time out from daily life and having some 'me-time'. A lot of them already liked the relaxed vibes of the cafe and having their portrait drawn added to the experience.

After the coffee shop, I booked an art-market stall in Bournemouth, and this time I tried to charge for the portraits. This was possible, and I managed to attract some customers, but only if I offered a low fee like £10. As an experienced artist I wasn't too excited about giving away an original drawing for a tenner and I realised the market was catering mainly for tourists wanting nick nacks on their way to the beach. So this put me off making the 6:30am (95 minute) journey by bus to the market with my whole stall piled onto a shopping trolley. And the journey back with a busload of drunk teens spraying perfume and screaming! Market and craft stalls are a lot better if you have a car.

I have a few ideas for taking this forward though. For example, if I worked closer to home and offered portraits on canvas that might convince people to pay more for them. And if I did a funded market stall project with a finite timeline this would work for me - I really enjoy working on a project with a goal and an end date.

Online

To keep my practice active I also joined some online portrait drawing groups. The idea is for the participants to pose for each other.

What could possibly go wrong?

This first thing to overcome was nerves and I was so nervous, anxious and self-conscious at the start, it felt very uncomfortable. However, it wore off quickly and after a couple of sessions I would settle in quite quickly at the start of each day. When I kicked off at Bournemouth market, I had the jitters again partly because there was so much to get ready but in a way the 'stage fright' kept me on my toes and I got into the concentration zone quite quickly with the drawing.

One of the interesting challenges in this project related to the self-image of the participants / subjects. As I was learning on the spot, some of my drawings went awry and I managed to make the subject look less than attractive. It had a lot to do with lines appearing like wrinkles. Also, any downward turn of the mouth can make the portrait look very miserable. 

Here I accidentally gave this poor lady Bells Palsy and aged the second woman way beyond her years. But on the far right you can see how I edited in an attempt to make the image acceptable: it's like one of those novelty app filters.

This drawing of an senior woman I like, but she might not feel quite so enthusiastic about it. 

Styles

In the first phase, at the cafe I experimented with different drawing styles. I wanted something I enjoyed doing as well as something aesthetically pleasing. I did get quite bogged down in how much the drawing was a good likeness, but I think depending on the style that's not necessarily key. For example, if you were to go for an extreme cartoon style, the humour in the image might outweigh the importance of a good likeness. But I enjoy the challenge of making a good likeness quickly, so it's something I wanted to achieve, at least in the short term.