Face to Face

One small freelance gig that I recently did was as a hired performance artist of sorts, if you can believe it. The creative staffing agency I work with was having an open-house type reception and they asked me to come in and illustrate the party theme on a white board for an hour while guests were mingling around me.


It was kind of short notice and I was completely freaked out about it, as you can imagine. I've never had to draw up a mural in such a short period of time, and in front of a live audience, using white board markers no less. I really wasn't sure I could do it, but it seemed like fun so I said yes.

I kind of created an outline of what I would draw, with some little motifs and elements that could easily be moved or reproduced in different areas. The idea was that there were 3 illustrators altogether who would draw in succession using the same space, kind of like that game where you write one word of a sentence and then the next person writes a word and pretty soon you have some mangled up grammatical nightmare that makes no sense. Like that, but on a white board.

The day of the party I got a confirmation email that said that one artist had dropped out, leaving just me and another illustrator, whose name I googled and found his beautiful portfolio of paintings and storyboards. Ahhh! I felt the need to write back and remind the project manager that I am not a professional illustrator, I merely have a knack for drawing that I like to implement in design when budgets don't allow for commissioning real artists. I'm a, you know. What's the word? "Hack"? Ok, "amateur" maybe.

I didn't really get a response, probably because they were like, Look we've got a bar to set up and caterers on the way, just suck it up lady and we'll all be fine.


So I went in there with my little sketches, and as you can see, it turned out fine. I'm glad I prepared something because it would have been impossible to fill that space without something to start with. The theme was "Face to Face" so my interpretation had to do with the human designer's interaction with typefaces, thus "face to face." I also like birds and flowers, so...

Working with whiteboard pen is really the worst though. Chalkboard would have been much better. Whiteboard is so unforgiving and difficult to use. I should have just stuck to one or two colors and done more shading. Knowing what I know now I think I could do better the second time, but hopefully I won't ever be asked to use whiteboard again so it won't matter.


The other artist came in later and did a continuation of the flowers at the bottom with a pretty cool Seattle skyline and a "Rain-bot" that sprinkled the city with water. He was ultra-cool and fun to talk to, and we chatted as we drew. Other people came in and talked with us and the food was good and I had a glass of wine which surely helped.


I tried to dress cutely, so that maybe it would distract from the appearance of my mural. It sort of worked.



This is a story of courage more so than anything else, because it was difficult to go into that situation and get up in front of people like that. Anyone who knows me knows that while I can chatter away one-on-one about pretty much anything, group presentations and public performance is hard. Having my work judged doesn't necessarily get easier over time, I just get better at recovering. It ended up being quite fun, and a great experience, and looking back I can honored to have been asked.

I would even do it again. I think I would have used a different concept for the drawing, perhaps "Face to Face with My Fears" would have been appropriate.