Live events are the perfect opportunity for fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands to establish a one-to-one connection with their customers, and Katharine Asher’s sublime drawing skills provide the perfect means to achieve this. In the age of the selfie, people are irresistibly drawn to the idea of having a portrait rendered from a more personal perspective, and sitters and onlookers love seeing her beautiful portraits develop before their eyes.
Creating a unique gift for each customer to take away with them, Katharine can draw sitters wearing her client’s garments or jewellery, deepening their connection with the event and the brand. In addition to brushes and paper, she can just as easily use an iPad with the results projected onto a larger screen for a wider audience. Having kept her life drawing skills sharp throughout her career, live portraiture is second nature to Katharine and guests always feel comfortable sitting for her.
Approach
Katharine prepares for each event by gaining a thorough understanding of her client and creating a few sample images for guests to see. Just before the event, she’ll do some warm up drawings. Guests are drawn live or from IPad photos during the event. Kathy favours traditional sword brush, inks and traditional watercolour with pen liners for detail.
She also works digitally using Procreate if client prefers, and can offer clients time laps videos of the creation of her portraits.Style
The simple, elegant style Katharine’s clients love is always present in her live event work. Paring back the detail, she only draws the most important lines to form each portrait, using her experience to say a lot with very little.