For the promotion of the local art school (VAZOM) I participated as a portraiture artist in a Montmartre style street art market, offering market visitors the possibility to have a quick portrait sketch done for free. It soon became a complete portrait frenzy, with market visitors queuing up to have a portrait done (the photo above was made early on when things were still quite calm). I did a total of 22 portraits in four hours, most of them children, often spurred on by their parents. My art classmate Rene standing on the other side of the market did a total of 27 including a dog. Not directly perfect portraiture conditions, with quite lively children, many of them finding it difficult to keep a pose, sounds of whistles and horns (handed out by a market entertainer) sounding throughout the market and from time to time having to grab hold of the drawing board and easel to prevent them from being blown over by the wind. But it certainly was a very enjoyable experience.
I didn't get around to making photos of the individual portraits done at the market. Shown below are two quick sketches I did that morning of a photo that I had lying around to loosen up and get the hang of working with charcoal and conte again. (Stuart for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr). Charcoal and conte on grained paper (21 x 29,7 cm).
Portrettekenen tijdens "Montmartre op d'r Maat" in Kerkrade voor de Vrije Akademie ZOM. Een drukke middag, veel snelle (gratis) portretschetsen gedaan, voornamelijk van kinderen, samen met mede-cursist Rene.
