User Interview – Elke Reva Sudin, Drawing Booth
Elke stocking up on gear for Drawing Booth.
What is Drawing Booth and how did you get started?
Drawing Booth provides digital live-drawing portrait services for corporate and private events. Our artists mingle with your guests, entertaining them with a sophisticated personal portrait that they draw in just a couple of minutes on an iPad. The guests receive the digital copy as well as a print out on the spot. It is like a photo booth, but with real artists who mingle with you while you enjoy the party. Drawing Booth came out of my passion for quick drawing, a personal obsession with fun tech toys, and a love for bringing people together. Our first event was for the Webutante Ball in 2014, a party for the personalities of Internet Week in NYC. The technology for drawing on an iPad was not as advanced as it is now, but it worked for my quick expressive style. I knew right away that I wanted to have teams of artists. It took a while to find and teach others how to do what came naturally to me, but since then we have grown to having teams based out of 3 other cities!
Drawing Booth now has teams in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London.
It seems like you’ve been on the road a lot lately. Did you start all of these new teams in different cities just as an excuse to travel? Be honest!
You got me! When clients started asking to fly us out for events, sometimes to more exotic locations, it seemed to make more sense to allocate those resources to creating teams that supported local artists instead. Each city should take pride that they are providing jobs that support their own citizens.What’s your background as an artist and what kind of projects interest you?
I studied illustration at Pratt Institute and always had a fine-art attitude towards my illustration. My digital technique comes straight from how I worked for years in brush and ink as well as drawing in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. What I love about working on an iPad is that it allows me to work on the spot without having to fumble with materials. It also gives me a hard (digital) copy to see what I’ve done and how I’ve progressed. When working on paper, once you give the artwork away, it is gone forever.
Live drawing at an Interior Design Magazine event in Cancun, Mexico.
What’s your favorite destination that you’ve visited (with Drawing Booth or otherwise) and why?
Florence. As an artist, it was like coming home.What’s your number one travel tip?
Pack light and have the boarding pass screenshot saved to your phone. If you travel wearing minimal professional attire, ie. a blazer, half-decent makeup, and dress shoes, people will treat you much nicer on your flight.You’ve said travel gear is “another obsession” of yours. What do you love about it and how would you describe your travel style?
My travel style is minimal and ultra-light with a professional twist. It’s having EDC that is tech useful but also looks like fine jewelry.
Elke at the National Mall in Washington D.C. with her Carry-on 2.0.
Where are you planning to go next, for work or for fun?
I’ve been traveling back and forth between NYC (my home base) and LA and Chicago, to train artists for our new expansions and to show off our services to potential clients. For fun, I want to do a multi-destination trip around Asia, ie. India, SE Asia, China, Japan. Recommendations and personal invitations are welcome :).You said you were growing “frustrated by a career in art that involved less and less actual art-making” and that you started Drawing Booth as an outlet to draw as much as possible. Can you talk about why you made that decision?
When I started fresh out of art school, I used to draw all the time, at figure drawing sessions, on the train, an illustration a day was my motto, but in 2010 I launched myself as a painter with my breakthrough series Hipsters & Hassids. My career became less about producing work and more about exhibiting it. While that led to more attention, I missed the act of drawing itself. When we draw for events, we get to draw for hours! It’s like attending a figure drawing class except we get paid to do it!
Showing the results of his portrait.
Who are your clients and what kinds of events are the most fun/interesting for you?
We do all kinds of events primarily for the corporate meetings and events world as well as some weddings and mitzvahs – company parties for their employees or clients, basically anyone they want to impress.
Guests having pictures taken with their portraits.
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Drawing Booth portraits on display.
How do you find other artists that share your skill and passion for drawing ‘flash portraits?’
We have tried several avenues for finding the right talent but it has honestly been Craigslist that casts the widest net! We look for artists who are eager to push themselves creatively, socially, and with professionalism to achieve the high-quality product that we provide. When looking for artists, it’s not necessarily their portfolio that speaks to us. We look for artists who can manage our unique combination of talents. It is about 50% drawing and multitasking with the tech and 50% about working with people, both as a team and with the clients. We work to bring joy to people at events and artists have an amazing opportunity to build that type of positivity in addition to creative interpretation.
The artist mingling and drawing live at an Interior Design Magazine event in Cancun.
Painting/drawing can be a solitary pursuit, do you enjoy the performative aspect of creating something with a subject in public? Has working live been a stretch for you or was it something you were always comfortable with? What’s challenging or great about that?
As a self-aware extrovert, I love drawing for people. It creates an exciting challenge to focus and impress but I also feed off of the crowd’s support and excitement for seeing something come to life from out of nowhere.
Elke sharing a portrait with guests at a black tie event.
What’s the role of technology in what you’re doing? Is it mostly for convenience sake or does it enhance the artwork?
When it comes to drawing, technology has always been to mimic real-life materials and how they organically affect the value, shape, line quality, texture, and tone of the work. For my company, technology means portability, speed, a wide selection of brushes in a single device, the ability to make instantaneous, minute adjustments, the sacred undo button, and then the use of pressure sensitivity, which has basically been the game changer of digital art.
An artist illustrating a panel discussion as it happens.
What are the biggest advantages of drawing/painting digitally?
It saves space and preserves resources, that is for sure. Tech helps you achieve the vision of the painting much quicker and allows you to make changes, but it prevents “happy accidents” from the unexpected mixing of materials and physics. There are calculated ways built into programs like the app we use, Procreate, help to integrate a bit of a mess and texture, to get away from an overly crisp digital aspect. Rough edges and lower opacity with a realistic dynamic range make all the difference in the world.
Elke working in Procreate at an event for ABC.
You’ve added several cities to Drawing Booth already and have even ‘gone international’ by setting up a team of artists in London and taking other gigs abroad. Where do you see Drawing Booth going and what’s been your biggest challenge getting there so far?
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A Drawing Booth artist shows her clients their portraits.
Are you always on site with your team? Are there any challenges/joys of working with other artists?
I’m at about half of our events and will be at fewer as we continue to expand. I love drawing but I’m not as available and that works out really well for our artists working on the reg! The challenge of working with other artists is for them to understand that the event itself is a small portion of all of the blood sweat and tears that goes into operating a business.
Wedding guests could have their portraits printed on site. Photo by Jacob B Murphy.
What do you need to take with you to an event? And how do you carry it?
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The tools of the trade.
Working live is always risky/challenging – have you ever had anything unexpected happen? How did you or your team handle it?
I tend to be a more laid-back person, except when it comes to my business and our quality standards. What we do requires several simultaneous levels of performance, and for sure, focusing on one can put a strain on the others, but we work very hard to prepare our team for expecting the unexpected and managing those situations with professionalism. Thankfully there haven’t been too many problems. Technology fails happen but each new situation encourages us to be even more thorough on our systems and remind ourselves, no matter what, just keep drawing!What’s been your favorite experience so far? Can you share a moment that made you feel proud of yourself or your team?
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Capturing the moment.
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Elke and the Drawing Booth Admin Team.
If someone is interested in becoming Drawing Booth Artist what’s the best way to connect?
Artists are always welcome to apply in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and London but may be located in other cities of interest ie. San Francisco, Miami, and Toronto We have had a great experience with fine artists and illustrators who are good at realistic and stylized almost fashion portraits since we look to make every drawing flattering. These artists have their own established careers exhibiting, doing commissions, and honing their skills in figure drawing sessions. They care about the craftsmanship of their work but also are able to let go, do a quick drawing and move on. It can be difficult to find people who aren’t afraid to step out of their studios and work under such intense pressure, but very rewarding when we find the right talent up for the challenge.
Flossin’ that mobile printing belt.
What’s next for Drawing Booth and for you?
With Chicago, LA, and London up and running, we are giving all sides of the business an upgrade and expanding our marketing presence to let people know we are the pioneers and we are available everywhere! Growing as a company also means doing a lot of unsexy business things like building a thorough admin team so I can focus on my vision and continue to innovate. We are excited about creating special projects like corporate collaborations and new offerings to show how much else we can really do. I turn 30 this year and am excited to usher in the next stage of my life. I’m working on being bi-coastal and looking forward to having a little more time to get back to personal art projects, zentrifying (#zentrifying) my work/life space, and to plan some epic traveling where I get to use all those points I’ve collected!Where can people find out about what you’re up to and about Drawing Booth?
Follow us on Instagram @elkerevasudin and @drawingbooth.
Elke and the Drawing Booth team at an even in Los Angeles.