Live portrait illustrations for Staedtler’s London pop-up

Sadly I didn’t actually draw the portraits with this giant pencil

I recently had the pleasure of creating live portrait illustrations at a central London pop-up, for stationary brand Staedtler. The event was celebrating the 125th Birthday of their Noris pencil.

Due to the pencil powered theme of the event, I created quick pencil sketch portraits of guests visiting the pop-up. The portraits were a great way to draw people in (excuse the pun) to the shop, and then keep them engaged with the event. On a personal level, I met so many lovely people and had great chats whilst I sketched.

Live portrait illustrations are such a great keep-sake for people to take home and I really enjoy giving people a souvenir from the event that they can frame or just pop on the fridge when they get home.

I like to create my portraits quickly (in around five minutes), focusing on capturing something playful and expressive that captures the person’s personality.

I only photographed a small fraction of my portraits, but I reckon I must have drawn at least sixty members of the public. That might be a record for me!

Spotted in action through the window of the pop-up on Monthmouth Street

If you’d like to learn more about my live portrait illustrations for events, you can read more here.