First workshop thoughts:

• The workshop itself was very enjoyable. The flexibility of the task made me less aware of the thought I kept having prior making art which was the fear of making ‘bad art’. At first, it was a different feeling than what I’m
  usually used to, which is focusing on proportions and detail, but talking to new people and meeting new faces in such a short time made it less terrifying to mess up, as everyone was in the same position of not knowing anybody around them prior.
• I loved using the materials such as chalk and graphite sticks after a period of art block for me. They are the main materials I tend to gravitate the most naturally. The spirit of using different materials each time a new feature was drawn was an interesting point to see because each tool had its own purpose in which they could bring out certain elements in the drawing, like a specific feature on the portrait. Depending also how intensely it was used, a lot of the portraits that I saw including the ones I did myself, on one of them ink made the hair and lips stand out from the blank page and therefore bring the focus towards that specific area, mark making a particular mood.
• I was surprised at how each piece created had its own certain unknown vibe even though a lot of them were created by multiple people at once and some even suggested as if they had themes such as ghost-like faces. Personally I enjoyed the actual making and analysing of the works, it was eye opening to be free with my art skills, without the possible worry of thinking ‘is it good enough?’ for anyone.
• Definitely making this practice as a routine before beginning ideas or simply sketching blindly to warm up the wrist is a great activity. It also gets rid of that ‘fear’ of the blank page in front of you and I think personally, I would benefit a lot from doing more blind drawing like these to stress less before starting new work or to get more practice in actually looking at what I’m drawing and its essence than going in to copying straight from an image directly to paper.