Aug 24, 9-12:15 PST | online

A written portrait creates an account of physical characteristics of a person – their face, expression, what they are saying–or not saying. A portrait can create an opening into the inner life or mind of that person, and can suggest something about their style of thinking, their emotional state. We see them in a particular moment, in the flow of their life. In drawings, a powerful portrait isn’t static–we can sense the whole person. We might see what they were just doing or what they might do. Action, gesture, movement. Somehow a still image of a person can suggest the person in motion or their mind in motion. We’ll look at how a simple gesture can be a concentrated way of introducing someone’s mind, or way of thinking, or way of being. The gesture itself may seem insignificant, but somehow in just a few sentences, it is as if we’ve met a whole person. We’ll explore the body in motion and how that contributes to our understanding of a character, how people take up space, how we can come to know someone by what they’re doing, or not doing. Participants will come away from the workshop with a set of prompts for future writing, and a group of studies/sketches that can be shaped and developed further. We’ll also discuss the practice of keeping a notebook to cultivate receptivity.