Lino Cut self-portraits on the back of my portrait cards

Sketching Portraits

I really love sketching people, and I always sketch portraits in my sketchbooks and never show the people who I’ve drawn, my sketch. So I created a set of watercolour portrait cards (8cm x 6cm) or Toulouse.

On the back of the cards I’ve added my Instagram handle, and I added a linocut print of a self-portrait I made last year when I was in my linocut phase. I’ve made 18 altogether, and hope to use them all during the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium in Toulouse next week.

The other side of these cards are blank, and I plan to sketch people in cafes and hand them a portrait. Sketching people and giving them the sketch, isn’t something I’ve done much of, but it’s definitely something I want to do a lot more of. So this event is an ideal opportunity to see whether this is something I want to do more of.

Out of all the self-portrait linocuts I made, this is my favourite. I do love a stripy top, so this is an iconic snap shot. It reminds me of the stripy top Pablo Picasso favoured.

I’ve seen a lot of video on Instagram recently of artists sketching people on location, and then giving their subjects the sketches. The look on these people’s faces when they get a sketch of themselves is golden.

The only trouble is, people tend to see themselves differently than you see them. So there’s a chance they’ll be disappointed by the portrait offering, but hopefully nobody is rude enough to be negative about the sketch.

But that’s always a possibility!

Oh well! In for a penny, in for a pound. I’m going to use this as a test run and experiment. Let’s see how it goes.

Wish me luck.