In 2015, Sketch Artist Ken Foster started a project to draw or paint 250 portraits of friends, colleagues and acquaintances he’d met over the years and title it The Portrait Project. Here are Midcoast people you might recognize. For privacy’s sake, Foster only refers to them by their first name. See our original story here.

Nick

This is Nick. He and my son have been friends since the second-grade. The beginning of their friendship happened to coincide with the end of my first marriage. The house I moved into during the separation and first couple of years after the divorce was right next door to Nick and his family. We couldn't have been luckier. Nick and Alex played together for hours building forts in Trollum, playing Viva Pinata (a video game), and engaging my friends and I in many Nerf wars. They forged a lasting friendship and I'm crazy proud of the young men they are becoming.

 “When I was in third- or fourth-grade they moved into the house next door,” said Nick. “I knew Alex a little from school. One day I walked over, knocked on the door, and just started being friends After that, we went outside and played tag.”

Nick, 18, is a senior at Camden Hills Regional High School and is still friends with Alex, even though they no longer live next door to one another. “He goes to a boarding school so I don’t see him as much, but we hang out when he comes back for vacations and the summer.”

And yes, they’re still playing video games. “A fair amount, yeah,” he said.

In the summer, Nick and Alex hang out at Foster’s lake house, which they call “Lake Chilling.”

“We’ll go out tubing or swim around,” he said. “Actually, I stopped tubing because there have been several occasions I’ve been injured. The boat is way too powerful and one day, Alex and another friend were sitting on the tube that can only fit two people, and I was sitting on the boat watching them. My leg was kind of extended out around some of the ropes that were connected to the tube and when the boat started moving, the rope started pulling, getting tighter and tighter, constricting my leg. I almost got thrown off the boat. So, that really hurt and I decided never to do it again.”

Asked what he thought about Ken’s portrait, he said, “I liked it a lot. He painted from a photo, which was taken after a cast party we had after we performed Shrek, The Musical in my sophomore year.”

Nick was Pinnochio in that musical. “Ken did a good job with that portrait, he always does,” Nick added. I appreciated that portrait because theater is a big part of my life and it reminds me of the passion I have for it.”

Related stories:

• Hot Sketch: Shannon, Queen of Everyday Adventures

• Hot Sketch: Steven, the man who cross-referenced his way to get to Maine

• Hot Sketch: Terri, the author who used to be a watercolor artist

• Hot Sketch: Cate, the right brain/left brain lady who went to Belize

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com