Sketch-O-Matic
Friday 3rd December - Sunday 13th December
Sunday 6th December 2015
Introduction
This is an event that took place at HOME in Manchester; the same building that hosted the Manchester Animation festivals. This is an event where there is a photo booth which has an artist on one side, and then people sit inside and have their portraits drawn by the artist. More details can be found here: [http://homemcr.org/opportunity/calling-all-artists-sketch-o-matic-is-back/]
I was one of the lucky artist who was chosen to be a part of the Skecth-O-Matic. My first slot was booked for the Sunday 6/12/15 at 12pm for an hour.
Session
Once I was there the booth was ready to go and some people were already waiting luckily. I was the first artist of the day and made myself comfortable in the booth. It was a very small space with everything I needed, it did also get very warm; it was cosy though.
As I sketched I had to move a marker above the one way mirror that let the people know that the portrait was being made and i couldn't be longer than five minutes. I used pencil and sharpie for my portraits because I used the pencil to create a rough sketch and then use the black sharpie to complete the portrait. These portraits are only on A5 sheets of paper which was good for me as I didn't have a lot of time to draw these portraits.
Once the person(s) had sat down in the booth, they would donate at least £1 through a slot which luckily landed in the box full of sharpies near my feet.
I had to also keep a tally of the people who sat in the booth; this counted individuals because two people can sit in the booth at one time. I manged to be draw twenty people before my hour was over which I am very pleased about.
There were some people I found challenging as I sketched because I had to see past my own reflection and try to create an interesting portrait without being insulting. I chose to simplistic in my sketches as they are easy to do and give me enough time to correct or even re-create them if I need to. One portrait I had to create I found especially challenging were a pair of toddlers that the parents sat in the booth. I found this difficult because I had to portray them as extremely young but because i was nervous, my hand was shaking and made these awkward lines. I had to re-draw them three times in the five minutes as they were more interested in Postman Pat than the booth.
I would have taken pictures of the sketches however i felt under pressure to 'dispense' the sketches as soon as I can because it felt rude to keep the people waiting for their portraits. However if I were to do this again, i will try to take some images of the completed sketches before I give them away.
Despite this though I had a lot of fun creating people's portraits as I found that it was great feeling hearing people laugh at the portraits once I had put through the slot at the end. And I hope to attend more sessions in the near future as well as next year.
Wednesday 9th December 2015
Session
I was lucky enough to be given additional slots and was able to do: 12-1pm on 9/12/15 and 3-4pm on 10/12/15.
I had 8 people today and here are the pictures I managed to take quickly before I slipped them through the slot.
[A young couple]
[A young woman]
Thursday 10th December 2015
Session
This was the last slot for me for Sketch-O-Matic and I had 20 people that day. here are their sketches:
[A young lady]
[A young lady]
]
[A young lady]
[A lady with a mother and her baby]
I have really enjoyed this time at the Sketch-O-Matic this year and will want to do this again next year. As for my sketches I will improve them with detail and a greater sense of character; much like caricatures with exaggerated facial features which are very funny. I would also try to add colour but I would have to be very quick as these sketches cannot be longer than five minutes. But if I improve my sketching abilities, I can improve both the quality and the time to create these portraits.
And a big thank you to everyone who sat in the booth and everyone who organised this amazing event.
No comments:
Post a Comment