For the past 18 months, I’ve had the pleasure of joining a fantastic Monday evening drawing group called Drawing is Free, hosted by the wonderful Chloe Briggs. The group meets on Zoom at 5pm, and Chloe organizes an hour of fast-paced, creative fun that I look forward to every week. It’s simple but so effective: Chloe picks someone from the call to hold a pose, plays one track of music, and we all have the length of the track to sketch or paint a portrait of the sitter. This is repeated over the hour, and by the end, we’ve usually created 10-12 portraits!
It’s fast, fun, and the music is always on point. Over time, I’ve filled numerous sketchbooks with portraits from these sessions. Am I a master artist? Probably not, but I’ve grown so much in confidence and understanding of portrait drawing. I’ve even had the chance to be the sitter myself a couple of times, once alongside my son, Thomas, which was a really fun experience.
Recently, Chloe reached out to me through Instagram and asked if I would be interested in doing an interview as part of her project. We talked about what first brought me to Drawing is Free, what keeps me coming back every week, and how the experience has shaped my drawing practice. It was such an honor to chat with her!
If you’d like to check out our interview, it’s available for free on Chloe’s Patreon page: Interview on Patreon. I highly recommend you take a look and, if you’re interested, join us for a session one Monday evening—you won’t regret it!
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