In 2015, Sketch Artist Ken Foster started a project to draw or paint 250 portraits of friends, colleagues and acquaintances he’s 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.

Terri

This is Terri. She's an appraiser, which is how I first met her. Then I came to learn that she's also a writer and a watercolor painter. For a couple of months one summer we played lawn croquet with a big group of friends. She's intelligent and she speaks her mind. It's great when those two qualities go together. I love hearing what she has to say.

“I used to be a watercolor portrait artist, but for the last 15 years, I've been a writer of historical fiction,” said Terri. “That photograph of me Ken painted was taken at The Breadloaf Writer's Conference in Vermont in 2011. It was my first time at a writer's conference and I was working on a four-book series following the intertwined and parallel lives of the descendants of four American families from the 1600s down through the 20th century. The day that photo was taken was at an outdoor social and I was really happy to be there. All of the writers were taking pictures of each other; I think it was the last night.

“Ken and I met each other through mutual friends, for whom I used to throw backyard croquet parties. When he started posting his sketches on Facebook, as a watercolor artist I knew exactly what it took and what the challenges were. To watch him as an artist mature through each sketch was exciting. When you're working from a photograph, the difficulty is that the camera flattens out the whole image. In order to make the face look alive, it takes a lot of skill - in use of light or animating the hair or rendering clothing - to breathe life into the image so it's not just a head on a stick. And he does that in this portrait and so many others.

“Artists and writers usually only share their best stuff with an audience. And, this is true of every art form. For every success, there are a dozen or more "toss aways" or experiments that never see the light of day. One of the most exciting aspects of The Portrait Project is that Ken was rightfully confident of both the integrity of the project and his own ability to post the portrait however it came out. Thus sharing not only the result, but the process with us. That is an extraordinary exercise for any artist.”

Related stories:

• Hot Sketch: Shannon, Queen of Everyday Adventures

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

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com