Chris LaPorte has bedazzled us with this incredible drawing sprawling 13 x 26 feet using 100 2H pencils taking about 1200 hours to complete. The band members stand tall in their matching uniforms, clutching their instruments and sporting classic blank faces. Not a detail was missed from the carefully displayed trim on the jackets, to the fancy conductor’s hat, and the handsome look of the flag bearer.
It started with a photograph from his grandfather’s years in high school band making it 80 years old. The inspiration spilled out to become this spectacle called “City Band” featured in ArtPrize 2012 at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Though this is a pencil copy of an old image, the photograph he had to reference was in bad shape. Many details of the band member’s faces and clothes were depicted by the artist’s imagination. The curves of the cheekbones and folds in the draped trousers, the shine in the brass instruments and the careful life put into their faces, these are all the amazing pieces he added to make this unfinished puzzle a complete picture.
The artist is known for drawing large replications with his pencil point. When he’s not dazzling audiences with these masterpieces, he is a caricature artist in Michigan where he has drawn over 85,000 portraits in the last 18 years.
