bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Sidney Leng

What would draw an eclectic mix of bankers, fashion designers, hair stylists and school teachers together each week after work?
A sketch group with a focus on drawing faces, created by British expatriate Simon MacDonald.
MacDonald, an English teacher from Hong Kong Student Aid Society Primary School in Tin Shui Wai, has founded three sketching groups since August last year – People Drawing People, People Sketch, and Face to Face – all based on the same concept: meeting in a cafe and drawing face to face.
He said the idea was simply to get people together for regular sketching events. The three groups have attracted more than 300 members in total so far.
The 37 year old said the process of drawing someone’s face was appealing to him.
“When you start drawing and concentrate on how to draw faces, it’s a very complex visual journey,” he said. “[The face] is an interesting shape. Everyone’s face is unique – so many aspects in it. I found it fascinating.”

Among all the grass-roots sketching groups in Hong Kong, MacDonald’s are likely the first and only ones that solely concentrate on drawing faces. And he stresses that his groups are different from art jamming, a popular type of workshop where amateur art lovers pay to draw in art studios or galleries for a few hours with food, equipment and tutoring provided.
“It’s a mutual exchange,” he said. “We contribute ourselves as faces to draw, and we share skills.”
“When you see people’s drawings of you, you start to see the techniques they use to solve little problems and how to represent something visually. I think subconsciously, you absorb that very quickly. So if you are drawing by yourself, that’s good practice, but if you are drawing with other people, you pick up ideas and techniques really quickly.”

The Post joined a recent event in Tsim Sha Tsui, attended by about a dozen people one Wednesday night at 7pm.
MacDonald greeted new drawers, explained the event’s concept, and introduced them to others. Once settled, they took out their pens or pencils and started drawing each other on sketch books, iPads and even napkins. After finishing one sketch, a drawer would ask the name of the person being drawn and write it down next to the sketch.
“I do this to encourage interaction and remind people they are drawing people not objects. But some people ask others to sign, which is also a way to express interaction,” MacDonald said.
Halfway through the event, he volunteered to pose as a model while the other drawers were sketching him sitting still in a chair from different angles. MacDonald said he usually asks two people to pose for five to 15 minutes.

“We also do 30-second poses – when someone just jumps up spontaneously and you have to quickly draw them,” he said. “That’s another technique that’s interesting – when people are moving, you have to figure out how to solve the problems and draw someone who is moving around.”
Growing up in Dulwich in south London, MacDonald developed his interest in people and sketching at Dulwich Picture Gallery, one of the oldest public art galleries in England, where his father used to take him to mimic masterpieces from the 19th century with pencils.
He is a fan of old ink sketches from Hans Holbein the Elder, a German painter from the 15th century. Once, he got permits to get into the private library of the Louvre and spent an hour with Holbein’s sketch of a hand, “just looking at the lines and copying it. It was very detailed,” he recalled.
Before becoming a teacher, MacDonald had been drifting between graphic design jobs and freelance photography after four years of studying visual arts in college.

In school, he is now trying to use visuals to help students organise their thoughts and write clear reports in English. But in his spare time he still maintains his hobby of drawing.
“I consider myself a creative person but not highly skilled creative person,” MacDonald said. “I am not so interested in people being artists but more in giving people the opportunity to practise their skills, which everyone has.”
Sketcher Richard Ward, 63, is a former banker-turned-financial consultant from the United States. He said he had never taken a drawing lesson in his life, but over his long career he would sometimes nurture his artistic sense on his notepad where he would draw pictures if he got bored of a meeting. His sketching style is far from realistic. Instead, it’s close to Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s Cubism, as Ward concentrates on lines and distorting faces into abstract forms.
“It’s a very relaxing way to pursue something that interests you and do it in an environment where you meet other people,” Ward said.

Lai-Fun Liu, a primary school teacher, said she found it refreshing to sketch after work.
“We teach all day and we give all day. We like to have something back. I feel drained,” Liu, who finds it easier to sketch in a group of like-minded adults, said.
When she sketches alone on buses and trains, “I pretend I am writing a diary. If I find people are looking my way, I look down,” Liu said. “Children are very different, they don’t feel embarrassed, whereas adults find it insulting, offensive and intimidating, and look away.”
“[The event], it’s a safe zone,” artist John McArthur, a regular sketcher, said. “Otherwise, you need to be a little brave initially.”


Hong Kong sketchers get face time at group events where they draw each other

A sketch group that meets every week 
               to draw faces is providing
               a welcome outlet for the artistic urges
               of a diverse gathering of Hongkongers

Profile People Sketch Meetup at the Pacific Coffee on Hankow Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. 27APR16 SCMP/ Jonathan Wong

Participants in the group sketch meet-ups draw each other’s faces. Photos: Jonathan Wong

News

Hong Kong

Education

A sketch group that meets every week to draw faces is providing a welcome outlet for the artistic urges of a diverse gathering of Hongkongers
