What is a speed portrait artist? I prefer the term speed portrait artist to caricaturist. Here's a sample of my speed portrait work, capturing the likenesses of guests at events in my own clean line graphical style. These photos were taken at Liverpool Museum, Art Battle Manchester and other events around the UK.
Speed portraits are about getting a likeness quickly, and I enjoy chatting to 'sitters' for the 5/7 minutes we spend together. It's not just about the art, it's about capturing a moment, putting them at ease and making them feel special.
Getting an event artist is a great way to give attendees something permanent that they can take away as a souvenir. Weddings, conferences, conventions, etc. It's a quick win at any event. I'm available to book by the hour, or for a full day with a discount. All materials are provided.
I've got a performance background (in improv comedy), and use humour to help ease any nerves of those who want to sit and be drawn but are a bit apprehensive about it. In my experience, once the first brave few have been drawn, others are quickly drawn to ...bring drawn.
The Home Open is the biggest annual art exhibition the venue puts on, with over 400 pieces. I'm delighted to say have one of my illustrations on display at this year's show.
'People watching' is a bunch of faces, drawn at various events I attended last year, including the Edinburgh Festival and Wigan market. Super quick inked sketches of people as they walk by.
They are based on the speed portrait work I do at events, trying to capture real people quickly. In this case, it's folks who walk past, interesting characters in real places just going about their business. Once they've walked past, I'm left with what I saw and my sense of humour.
It's a fun exercise and I'm really glad I made the effort to enter this year. You can see the Home Open exhibition until the end of March 2024
Rough and ready quick drawings getting ideas down on paper. A lot of my output involves making scamp artwork. For production companies and collaborations with other creative agencies who need to generate visuals quickly.
Scamps are very similar to storyboards or mock-ups. They help frame an idea, giving an art director or advertiser something to see that can help 'proof' a good idea, pushing it to the next stage, or decide if they aren't quite working, to help find the right direction.
They're an important early part of the creative process where speed and clarity are more important than the quality of the image.
Note: I often work under NDA's (non-disclosure agreements). That means the work is not for public display, on websites or social media. Scamps are often only for private use and owned by the company they are created for. The examples on this page are from real projects, and I've been permitted to share them. Just in case you're production company looking for a scamps artist and are worried about privacy.
These examples are from various projects I've worked on with leading production houses around the UK. From TV adverts to product design, it's often about facilitation, taking other people's ideas and converting them into images without being precious.
As you'll see in these examples, even at the early stage colour can be introduced a little, which often helps align with branding when presenting to clients. I've worked under direction with an art director to help achieve their vision, and I can offer ideas too.
Scamps happen at the very beginning of the process, and can on occasion stressful when they are created alongside conversations - that can go in different directions, but they don't have to be.
Good quality scamps help win pitches.
I have a background in comic art and improv comedy, and studied sequential art and communication design as a student. Learning the shorthand for storytelling and attention-grabbing that comics use so often really helps when it comes to composing images. Scamps can get messy quickly, and less is often more when it comes to choosing images for a presentation.
Some great photos from an event at Z-arts & MADE in Old Trafford. 'Exploring The Creative Potential for Manchester to become a UNICEF Child-Friendly City'.
It's been a busy year and a lovely way to round it out live drawing the national firefighters' conference, back again for the second year.
Graphic recording, capturing talks given by the guests there was a lot to digest. A lot of focus was on well-being and health, and I'm pretty sure the firefighting service isn't alone in having this as a priority to discuss. It was their 25th year and they had a lot to celebrate. My favourite talk was on sleep by Dr Sophie Bostock, as after 2 days of drawing solid I was quite ready for a power nap!
Graphic recording, live scribing, live art, whatever name it is given here are some more samples of artwork created at live events.
A full day of capturing an event, as is happened. Live drawing, graphic recording, it has many names, is the process where an artist (me!) draws quickly to capture an event as it happens. This is often talks, discussions and Q&A's, visually representing the themes and subjects that are spoken about. Like taking minutes, but much more fun.
It's a great way to document an event and create marketing and publicity material that can be used after the event to share and remind attendees. Also it's great for social media.
Busy times and places. A few weeks back I spent 2 days live recording 'Firefit', the national UK firefighter's conference. They got in touch back in Sept via one of their speakers, the brilliant John Parkinson who coaches and mentors folks in the firefighting service.
I'm always curious so it was great to hear talks over the 2 days on Wellbeing, Fitness, and the dilemas faces by those in the fire fighting service who keep us safe. There was a brilliant talk from Dr Gile Yeo about obseity, too.
My job wasn't just to listen of course but visually record as much as I could - while it happened.
Graphic recording / Live recording / Live drawing (it has many names,) is a niche gig, and I don't mind saying I was a little mentally fried after two days of turning words into visuals as they were spoken.
It's a challenge I relish and very much feeds the same part of my brain as improv. I have to be present and adapt quickly to the visuals I'm creating. If I spend too long on one drawing, the speaker might have moved onto a new subject by the time I'm done. Writing down keywords is good, but not too many, as a sheet full of words are just words. The goal is to find the balance of words and pictures to summarise the theme of the talk.
There's a graphic design shorthand at work, connecting what speakers are saying with what images are commonly represented by the subject being spoken about. There's also humour, more my own take as I like to add appropriate humour into visuals. Just my opinion, though I think with more serious topics, using a little light humour can help with how people engage with difficult subjects.
Hard for me to be objective about my own work, but the response was very positive. Attendees were encouraged to photo the art and share it across their social media, which was a great way for them to remember the event and what was covered, but also increased the engagement and reach of the event as a whole. As a freelance illustrator, to me this was a win win.
The events team at Firefit were great. As an outside contractor coming into their space, they were very welcoming.
I've already got a few more bookings for other events in 2022, and look forward to creating new event artwork in the future.
Do you think your event could benefit from a live artist?
Graphic Recording
Updated 2024.
Drawing events as they happen. Live face-to-face, or online.
Live drawing at the Wellbeing Farm, BCorp conference.
The annual firefighters conference (2 days)
Graphic recording / Live recording / Live drawing (it has many names,) is a niche gig, and I don't mind saying I was a little mentally fried after two days of turning words into visuals as they were spoken.
It's a challenge I relish and very much feeds the same part of my brain as improv. I have to be present and adapt quickly to the visuals I'm creating. If I spend too long on one drawing, the speaker might have moved onto a new subject by the time I'm done. Writing down keywords is good, but not too many, as a sheet full of words are just words. The goal is to find the balance of words and pictures to summarise the theme of the talk.
There's a graphic design shorthand at work, connecting what speakers are saying with what images are commonly represented by the subject being spoken about. There's also humour, more my own take as I like to add appropriate humour into visuals. Just my opinion, though I think with more serious topics, using a little light humour can help with how people engage with difficult subjects.
Hard for me to be objective about my own work, but the response was very positive. Attendees were encouraged to photo the art and share it across their social media, which was a great way for them to remember the event and what was covered, but also increased the engagement and reach of the event as a whole. As a freelance illustrator, to me this was a win-win.
Do you think your event could benefit from a live artist?
I’m used to using improv skills to make up scenes on the fly, and I’m used to drawing quickly for pitches and life drawing, however, I’d never had the chance to a ‘live draw’ or Graphic Recording, as it’s more commonly called.
Part of the thrill for me is not knowing what will happen ‘in the room on the day’. Will there be enough room for an easel? A2 or A1 paper? Will people be looking over my shoulder while I draw? I can only prepare so much, and the rest is about adapting to the situation as it plays out, just like improv really.
My CSz improv gang get together almost every weekend to polish our improvisation skills, so I took the opportunity to graphic record the whole 2 hour session. Here’s a timelapse video;
live-recording, live drawing, graphic recording or live scribing, it has many names!
Want to chat about what I can do at your event? contact me here, or if you're in Manchester I can be found at GRIT studios, in the Great Northern building on Deansgate.
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