Exercise 4: Small

In this exercise I chose Photo Booth. For the past 3 months I have had the sweetest photo booth images sitting on my desk of my dad as a child and my grandad. Once I had discovered it at my Nanna's house when looking through old photos, I instantly fell in love with this tiny row of 4 images that felt so perfect, charming, and such a beautiful moment between them.

I feel super inspired by these images, and whilst I will not use them for this exercise, their existence on my desk has definitely inspired. When seeing an exercise that looked at photo booth images, I really wanted to try draw portraits at this scale in black and white to match this of my dad and grandad. Instead, I thought I would create a mini series of self portraits. I've worked big, but never have a I worked this small, so if anything, it is out of curiosity to see what I could achieve.

To begin, I took 4 images on my phone, just silly poses to have some fun. I uploaded them to the computer where I turned them black and white and also into a photo booth strip. I printed them at real scale so I could aim to be as accurate as possible. I may then do a second version in my cartoon character style!

This would work fine!

Here are some photos of the process.

And here it is complete:

This was a fun exercise that really challenged my skills. I found it interesting working with the pencil at such a small scale. Attempting to capture a likeness, accuracy and the fine details was great practise, something I had never tried before with such a small drawing!

Hands can often be tricky to draw, so adding them to the mix at this scale was an extra challenge I wanted to explore. The results I think worked out surprisingly well. There are some areas I could look to improve, but in the end this was an experiment, and as a first attempt I am satisfied with the result. In fact, with the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year deadline extension, I was in time to be as spontaneous as the expression in a photo booth and apply with this drawing. In previous years I have only ever entered larger painted self portraits and have yet to make it to the short list. Let's see what happens with this, because why not!

ONE YEAR LATER

Well...

This happened!

I still can’t quite believe that a tiny drawing, and a spur of the moment decision to apply, led to me winning a place on PAOTY. Even a year later, it doesn’t feel entirely real. I’ve loved the show for so many years; it’s a huge part of why I came to love portraiture in the first place.

On one hand, it feels as though it never really happened, yet on the other, I’m reminded of it regularly, whether through the small envelope labelled Story Vault that now sits in my studio, or through conversations with people during my workshops. It’s a strange, almost surreal feeling, but one that I couldn’t be happier about.

The experience was incredible, reminding me how much I enjoy working within a time limit and, somewhat unexpectedly, under that kind of pressure. I felt surprisingly comfortable on the day, largely thanks to the incredible team and their genuine kindness. Their seamless organisation made the whole experience feel almost relaxing, which feels strange to say, given the number of cameras and people in the room.

It was a privilege to work in front of the judges and to later hear their thoughts. During filming, however, we had no sense of what they were thinking; only on the night the episode aired did we learn what was said... at the same time as everyone else was watching!

My sitter was Si King from Hairy Bikers, who, if considering the work I later went on to do in this course, was the perfect sitter! My "where the water flows" project for Assignment 4 had been of a similar age range so I really couldn't help but feel lucky... my angels definitely had my back! They keep the sitter secret right up until the moment they make the announcement, I suppose this is to capture genuine reactions on camera.

I know the show well, and I knew the second I received the call about making it on the show that somehow, I had messed up with the piece I entered! I typically paint portraits, not draw them! So up until the day of filming, I was contemplating what I was going to do on the day. I had seen in previous years that people who enter one piece but create something different on the day had a less chance of being selected, obviously this does actually depend on what you create on the day regardless of how different it is, but still the odds were low. The judges only see your piece on the day (which is my impression) and then they see what you create on the day. I don't believe they know anything beyond that so it really did depend on those 2 pieces. I wasn't sure how confident I would be to draw on the show under the pressure, whereas painting I do have confidence with.

Still undecided, yet leaning towards what I feel more comfortable with, I chose to take a canvas and a few paper options with me just so I can feel it on the day. You have 4 hours to complete your portrait, with a few extra minutes during lunch if you wanted.

It's interesting, as a spectator of the show, you have this vision on what you would do should you ever be given the opportunity to be on it. You think how crazy it is that a real life model, a famous one at that! is sitting directly in front of you, and yet everyone works from a photo. I always thought I would work from life... until I got there!

So they actually recommend that your work from photos, even though few people still work from life (I salute those people!). On the day there are cameras and people moving around all over the place. A lot of setting up a shot and interviews happening throughout. It would be an additional stress if you relied solely on life when considering movement, obstructions and general changes during the 4 hours. With all that considered, I went for a photo like everyone else, shame I know! Work smarter, not harder, as they say! What I did, however, was consider this photo reference. I wanted the photo to be fairly accurate to what I would see in front of me. I was unsure how I was going to work and so felt I needed both to be some what similar so that if I did look at Si, it wouldn't be far away from the photo. This was a huge help, as the photos I had taken at the beginning didn't quite have the hands how I wanted, so as the painting progressed and so did the day, I snapped a few hand options I could choose and work from instead.

My main goal of the day was to complete a piece, whatever it was going to be, I wanted to walk out with a full canvas or something I felt was done (to the best of my ability on the day). I was very pleased with what I achieved, though of course, in hindsight, I would absolutely do things differently. But for the painting itself, I won't go back and add or change anything, whether a likeness is there or not, I really felt to have captured an energy from the day, for which I am really happy with.

So that's a wrap!

I'm ever so grateful for the opportunity, and for this exercise! I wouldn't have made it on with the prompt and the direction I took it in.

I feel very lucky to have made it on when it was the original judges, as now, after 12 years, they have decided to step down and make space for a whole new panel of judging. Although I am a fan of the original crew, it does feel quite exciting to see what it will be like with the new judges.

I would 100% apply again!

Here a few photos I got on the day.