helen (portrayed above) did a last minute portrait swap with kerstin (below).
are you chewing your fingernails yet?
when i was younger, my family and i used to have portrait parties. we would congregate in the living room every few months and turn our attention from person to person, drawing everyone in the room. it was such a pleasure and so normal in my life that trading portraits became a regular event when i left for college, when i moved to new towns, when i met new friends or favorite artists. tommy kane suggested that it would make a good website. so, that's what this is... AND YOU'RE INVITED!
helen (portrayed above) did a last minute portrait swap with kerstin (below).
are you chewing your fingernails yet?
OF COURSE, jeannette (portrayed above) had an eleventh hour portrait up her sleeve! to cement her winning of the only contest in which she has ever participated, she drew her old middle school friend, james vaucher (below).
i was kind of kidding that anyone could challenge jeannette's lead in the current portrait party contest. at this rate though and with the help of more artists like karen (portrayed above), kerstin (below) could actually do it.
i have to confess that i'm a little bit nervous. i already started jeannette's portrait.
uh oh! that's two portraits in two hours! carol (portrayed above) is helping kerstin (portrayed below) give jeannette (portrayed all over) a run for her money!
believe it or not, this drawing of roy (above) was drawn by kerstin (below) before she received this drawing of herself as a pirate. believe it or not!
competitors don't be discouraged but this is jeannette's 2,374th portrait swap with her former classmate, jenna (portrayed below).
you can witness the creation of this drawing on youtube. (it's worth watching!)
i don't know how artistic movements are really formed but i love the fact that most of them emerge from a circle of friends or classmates or rivals. fauves like matisse (above) and andre derain (below) are a great example of all three.
jeannette (portrayed above) has "never tried to win anything" but she is well on her way to winning to the first ever portrait party contest with the help of newcomers like ammon (below).
if anyone wants to give jeannette a run for her money, just do a portrait swap every day of the week for the rest of the month! (i think that's the only way to catch up.)
jeannette (portrayed above) continues her bid for world domination. this time with the help of "josh pincus is crying" (portrayed below).
aaron renier (portrayed above) created one of my favorite comics, Spiral-Bound. one of the many characters in his story is a dog named stucky (portrayed below). while his classmates work on pinch pots in the art room, stucky creates a larger-than-life fully functional clay submarine that is put to use in the climax of the book. it's hard not to love stucky. his ambition and his perseverance are inspiring. can you imagine how delighted i was to discover that stucky is actually a portrait of aaron's good friend, craig thompson? and the submarine is craig's comic book masterpiece, Blankets.
this is maybe my favorite portrait of the party so far! because it tells us more than what craig looks like. it tells us what it's like to be his friend.
contestants beware: jeannette (portrayed above) has taken an early but powerful lead in the first portrait party contest. with the help of portrait partners like fred jurk (below).
is that his real name, we all wonder?
lance (portrayed above) is hosting a portrait party even more ambitious than this one. on Draw Me Draw You, he promises to draw charicatures of anyone who draws him. it's obviously a lot of work but i look forward to his updates. here is his trade with olli juutilainen (below).
my wife (portrayed above) christened her new journal this evening with a bunch of one minute portraits (below) of me! i think we were in agreement that, when drawing against a clock, the first portrait is always painful but the last one's pretty fine.