After years of sketching his colleagues during weekly work meetings, UK artist, Benjamin Hammond (now a Melbourne-based graphic designer) began getting requests from friends to provide them with a portrait. Opening up his skill set to a worldwide audience Hammond has just launched One Minute Portraits, a site where he creates portraits in just one minute. Anyone can email him a photo of themself, check out the portrait and then choose to buy the original. “I chose one minute because it’s roughly how long I take to draw a face,” says Hammond, “Saying that, if I’m really into drawing a face and my minute’s up, I may just keep going until it’s done. But normally it shouldn’t take more than a minute.”
The site, which literally just launched, is already gaining popularity with requests coming in from Dubai, London, Amsterdam and San Francisco. And while happy punters can choose to buy their original pic, Hammond does not charge for his one minute of work. “I considered charging but the main concept was born out finding a new consistent motivation to draw, and to hopefully gain attention which would then lead onto other projects,” says Hammond, “I love to draw, but I sometimes need a motivation. Or a thing to draw. Nothing like a good face. To draw I mean.”
