Portrait Gallery
Portrait Gallery is an energetic opening exercise in which participants draw portraits of one another collaboratively: artists rotate past a line of models and each adds a few seconds of drawing to the same sheet, so that every person ends up with a portrait made by many hands. The method comes from the Hyper Island Toolbox, and the facilitation agency Mischief Makers publishes an adapted version under the name Portrait Exercise. Because nobody draws a whole portrait, the pressure to draw well disappears and the result is a wall of faces for the rest of the workshop.
Facilitation script
- 1
Form the two circles, hand out cards and markers, and explain the rules: draw fast, look at the face, pass on when the signal comes.
3 min - 2
First drawing round with music: four or five bursts of drawing with a rotation after each, then reveal the portraits to the models.
4 min - 3
Swap roles and repeat the drawing round so the first artists get their portraits.
4 min - 4
Everyone adds their name and one annotation to their own portrait, following the prompt you give.
3 min - 5
Hang the portraits and walk the gallery, with a few people introducing themselves through their portrait.
6 min
Tips
Say clearly before the first round that the drawings are meant to be quick and imperfect, and demonstrate by drawing a few bad lines yourself.
Keep the rounds short and the music lively; the time pressure is what stops people from being careful.
Thick markers work better than fine pens because they rule out detail and correction.
Leave the gallery up for the whole workshop and refer back to it when you form groups or collect commitments.
Common pitfalls
Rounds that are too long, which gives artists time to become careful and self-conscious and drains the energy the exercise is meant to create
Forgetting to have the model's name written on the card, so that portraits get mixed up during rotation and cannot be matched to people at the end
Artists who carry the card with them instead of continuing the next model's drawing, which produces a muddle of faces on one sheet and confusion in the circle
Skipping the role swap for lack of time, leaving half the group without a portrait and absent from the gallery
Allowing mocking comments about how someone has been drawn; set the tone that the drawings are affectionate and unskilled by design
Variations
Timing differs between the published versions: Hyper Island's original uses bursts of 10 to 15 seconds and a full trip round the circle, while the Mischief Makers adaptation uses about 30 seconds and four or five rotations with the card handed to the model each time. The Mischief Makers version adds the annotation step and a gallery walk as a deepening option. For groups above 30, run two or three circles in parallel. A remote approximation is to have people pass a shared whiteboard frame from artist to artist every 20 seconds, though drawing with a mouse changes the experience considerably.
Where it fits
When to use it
A group is meeting in person for the first time and needs to laugh together within the first quarter of an hour
The agenda includes sketching or prototyping later and people have already said that they cannot draw
A multi-day workshop would benefit from a wall of names and faces that stays up
A new cohort or project team needs a shared artefact from its first session
Energy is low after arrival and you want people standing, moving and looking at each other
When not to use it
The session is online; the exercise depends on standing face to face and passing paper, so use Trading Cards or Fun Facts instead
The room has no space for two concentric circles or a double line; Trading Cards at tables gives a similar personal artefact
The culture or mood of the group is very formal and being stared at and caricatured would cause discomfort; start with a spoken check-in round
You have under 15 minutes for a group above 20, because both role rounds are needed for everyone to get a portrait
Participants include people for whom close, sustained eye contact is difficult; offer Doodling Together, where attention is on the paper
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Portrait Gallery?▾
Portrait Gallery is an icebreaker in which participants create portraits of each other together. Artists rotate past the models and add to each drawing for a few seconds at a time, so every portrait is the work of several people. The finished portraits are hung as a gallery. The method originates from the Hyper Island Toolbox.
How long does Portrait Gallery take?▾
The drawing itself takes about 8 to 10 minutes for both role rounds. With setup, annotation, a gallery walk and short introductions, plan about 20 minutes for a small group and up to 60 minutes for a large one.
Do participants need to be able to draw?▾
No, and the exercise works better when they cannot. Short bursts, thick markers and looking at the face instead of the paper make careful drawing impossible. Since every portrait has several authors, nobody is responsible for the outcome.
What if the group has an odd number of people?▾
The circles need pairs, so the facilitator or a co-facilitator steps in as the extra person. If that is not possible, one artist can sit out each rotation in turn, which slows the exercise slightly.
What do you do with the portraits afterwards?▾
Hang them on one wall and keep them there for the duration of the workshop. Annotated with names and a personal prompt, they serve as a participant overview, and you can come back to them at the end to check on the intentions people wrote down.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Hyper Island Toolbox; adapted version by Mischief Makers.