My 500th Post! Quick Sketches of people at St Mary's Fun Day, Welling, 2009

Hurray! My 500th post in Blogsphere!

We had a nice community fun day locally around Welling on Saturday and I had a little stall where I offered to do quick 10 minute sketches of people willing to sit for £10. It was quite an experience as I was almost busy all day, talking to children/parents, explaining what I do, entertaining customers who wanted to commission me to do their portraits, the process and also why I enjoy what I do to. I managed to get 11 sketches done and some didn't even have the chance to sit as they waited and waited till time ran out. It was a good feeling and also a way of getting contacts locally, especially for commissions or future school visits. I really enjoyed it! My greatest regret was not remembering to snap the 4 missing portraits from the 11, I can only live with the experience now.

The people who had stalls around were very very helpful too as I didn't even know to set up a gazebo but when they saw my confused state they all quickly came to my rescue and my gazebo was up in 15 mins!


All the sketches were done with an oil base pencil(very soft) on a A4 sketchbook sheet that could easily be detached. They were also placed in a "please do not bend" stiff sided envelope, before given to the clients.

I'll explain a bit about each model as I felt while sketching.


-a sweet (Blondie) little girl, maybe 3 years or so, she did very well to sit still for 10-15 minutes.


-my second model for the day, very composed and had the most subtle smile! Her dad an artist too, was happy to see how I could capture that subtle smile.


-my first model for the day. I'm really thankful to her for setting the ball rolling! I don't know how she had the confidence that I could do it, because she was already waiting while I was setting up, I had to tell her to come back in 5 minutes! I thought I'll loose her, but she was back!



- Just as her name implies she was graceful and I wonder how she kept a smile for 10-15 mins! Although when the cheek muscles wore out she still did her best to sit still!


_ A very composed little chap. A dream model for me, as he was still and had a twinkle in his eyes that kept me alert!


- He was sketched as he was in his buggy. I told his mum not to take him out. He may have been just 1 years old! Good model for that age and hardly knew what was going on as I had to distract him a bit to keep his face positioned throughout the sketch.


-Best model all day! He seemed to understand what it took to do the sketch and was rock solid throughout, never moved an inch. I almost freaked out as he was too serious!

Here are some pictures side shots