A Tucson artist is looking to face off with community members, but not in the way you may think.
As you sit in the “hot seat” and face local artist Linus Schief, she'll playfully stare at you with her clear blue eyes as she puts marker to paper while drawing your portrait — without ever looking down at the canvas.
By the end of the five-minute session, your nose could be on your forehead or you could have three eyes. The possibilities on paper are truly endless.
“We’ll agree to look at it together and then we just either burst into laughter or we're like, ‘Oh my God, what just happened?’ And then we analyze it together,” she said. “Sometimes if people are into that kind of thing, (asking) ‘Why did this end up here?’ … Or what does it mean that a couple that I drew are sharing one eye? That happens a lot with couples, cool things will happen like they're merging.
“I get a lot of people saying, ‘It feels like you're looking right into my soul.’ I always reassure them I'm not doing that, I’m actually not even looking at their whole face. I’m looking at one little piece at a time.”
Unlike traditional portraiture with stiff poses and picture-perfect facades, Schief describes her blind contour portraits as “chaotic, intuitive, hilarious” and able to capture the true essence of a person because of the vulnerability of letting someone truly see every detail on your face.
Linus Schief describes her blind contour portraits as “chaotic, intuitive, hilarious.”
She initially started doing blind contour portraits when she participated in an art show at the Habitation Realty speakeasy at the beginning of the year. The show’s theme was “Face It,” where artists were encouraged to “face each other, face reality and connection,” she said.
Schief wanted to have a creative take on the theme and decided to go with the blind portraiture concept that she had been toying around with in the back of her mind.
“I don't just want to hang my art up and put up an artist statement,” she said. “I want to have fun with the people who are there. So I thought I would arrive at the show with no art on my wall, and I'll just bring a clipboard with some paper and I'll draw all the people who come to the art show. And that's what I did. It was so fun. I think I drew 40 to 50 people that night.”
Since starting her portraits in January, Schief estimates she’s created between 150 to 200 unique portraits at her shop Warm Shape, 267 S. Avenida del Convento, and at various events and places around Tucson, like Exo Roast Co. or at a queer dance party at The Royal Room.
She even recently held her first workshop at Tucson Hop Shop, where she taught couples how to draw each other during a blind contour portrait session of their own.
“I tried to reassure everyone that this isn't about making a good drawing,” Schief said. “It's about the experience of seeing, and you might surprise yourself if you don't look at the paper and you follow these instructions. People are really hung up on things like, ‘I want this to look good. I want to do it right.’ I was hearing a lot of that language like, ‘good, right, beautiful, ugly, bad.’ But I hope that it turned a little key for some people. I think it did.
“I saw people really surprising themselves with what they were able to capture without looking, versus if they had been looking and really trying — and trying to be perfect.”
A self blind contour portrait done by Linus Schief.
Schief has completed portraits of individuals, couples, families and even pets. A portrait that stands out to her lately is one that she did of a single mother and her two boys from Texas, who visited Warm Shape during a stop in Tucson.
After the family returned to Texas, the mother reached out to Schief to commission a portrait.
“She sent me all these great photos and I drew everybody in one (go),” Schief said. “The first time I drew each (person) was the best one. I just got it right. I don't know if I was just in a flow state but everything just came together. And I felt like it really captured these people in this family. Then I sent it to her and she cried. And then I was crying.”
A blind contour portrait of a family from Texas done by Linus Schief.
Prices for a blind contour portrait run on a sliding scale from $20 to $40. More in-depth, semi-blind portraits run from $55 to $85. Customers can also get their unique creations printed on T-shirts, jackets, shoes and more, which Schief hopes more people will utilize.
To commission a portrait from Schief, send her a direct message on Instagram or catch her at an upcoming event. She’ll be hosting a Mother’s Day portrait session from 1-4 p.m. Sunday, May 12 at Warm Shape and at the ticketed Margarita Fest at Oasis at Wild Horse Ranch from 6-10 p.m. Tuesday, May 21.
Schief hopes to participate in more local events, including weddings and parties. Eventually, she’d like to go on a blind contour portrait tour where she stops in various cities, states and even countries creating portraits of different community members.
“I've done so much realistic portraiture, oil painting, drawing portraits and I think I kind of lost interest because it felt really tight and boring,” Schief said. “And it's just a skill that anybody can learn and it didn't feel very meaningful to me. These ones feel a lot more meaningful, even if they're not technically better.
“I have been an artist since I was a little kid and drawing faces was always my main thing. I just took it for granted and it isn't until just recently, 40 years later since I started, that I'm like, ‘Oh, this is actually a valuable and meaningful thing in my life.’ I'm so glad it sort of came back around. I just feel so much like myself when I'm doing it.”
For more information about Face Me Portraits, check out their Instagram page.
