Collective Portraits
Creative Portraits is a workshop that I have used twice during the EEEurope conferences. The PDF notes mainly relate to the first time I used it where we made individual ‘portraits’. More recently,, I have experimented with creating a group portrait made by 10 people all in the one picture. The photograph is of the finished work, but remember it doesn’t show the real dimensions, as each person is life size! We did have some fun getting into position and ensuring that everyone could fit in.
The exercise ended up similar but different. It felt more like a group project or creation, with a real sense of completion and pride in our final piece. In practical terms each person worked in a very focussed and individual way, working busily from person to person adding their own particular message. The only conversation during the activity was ‘Can you pass me the red paint brush …’ etc. etc. We were all totally absorbed. When we were finished, we shared a very full session of giving feedback to each other based on how we had used a particular colour or decoration for each person.
A small word of caution when using this type of activity: Don’t be fooled by the fun nature of the end piece, this was a very deep and personal session resulting in high quality feedback between individuals. So DO choose your timing for this activity when people have had time to get to know each other and there is a feeling of trust and confidence in the group.
If you do try it, I would be interested to hear how it has worked for you.
Enjoy.