Surrealist Free Drawing Introductions

Start with a short description of free drawing and be very clear that this is about looking at things from a different perspective – we are not going for perfect portraits. You can give examples from surrealist automatism and surrealist techniques. You may also want to share examples of surrealist portraiture but note that those examples are often more polished than what would be expected in this exercise.

Share your screen with visual examples of these and draw conceptual connections to free writing, as many may be familiar with this. The surrealists were known for using a variety of methods and techniques to get their results; so next, you will describe a technique for your participants to use in their portrait drawing. Techniques often introduce some element of constraint to the process. You can use one technique or layer techniques together. Some ideas for techniques can include:

• A short time limit
• Drawing with your non-dominant hand
• Drawing without lifting your pen/pencil
• Drawing with your eyes closed

Next, decide how your participants/students/artists will be divided by pairing people up, grouping them off, or having them do self-portraits. If the group is very large you may consider using break-out rooms.

After having completed the drawing, have participants share their portraits of one another by holding their drawing up to the camera and talking about their process. This can be done during the session so that real-time reactions from the participants can be captured, afterward in a discussion board/semisynchronous space like a Slack or Discord chat, or in a hybrid format where some are shared in real-time and some are shared afterward.