Bringing Live Sketching to Luxury Brands

In recent months, my journey with live event sketching and painting has taken me into unexpected and eye-opening environments. It has been an honour to be hired as a live sketching artist by luxury brands, each experience offering unique challenges, inspirations, and unforgettable moments.

Work as a team

First, being assigned to wear a uniform for a cosmetic product launch was a brand-new experience—I suddenly found myself working as part of a team, moving in sync with the brand’s associates, and blending my artistic role into their campaign choreography.

Not always portraiture

Then came a live painting session featuring an expensive mattress and bed setup, which was fascinating in its own way. The pressure wasn’t about capturing the likeness of faces this time, but about completing an entire oil painting within 3 hours—a very different kind of challenge.

Thankfully, using large brushes for the foundation and background helped me save time for refining the details. In sync with the store’s opening, I also enjoyed the lion dance accompanied by energetic drumbeats — a beautiful tradition in Chinese culture symbolising congratulations, prosperity, and long-lasting good fortune for the business.

Watercolour for live sketching

Truthfully, I picked up watercolour more seriously because of live event sketching; oil paint is still my natural home, but event work pushed me to explore new mediums through practice. What I love most, though, is that live sketching isn’t just about personal art-making time. It’s about creating pieces by observing people and interacting with them. It’s always interesting to glimpse how others live their lives — like when they talk about buying something new and how they make those decisions. Every event becomes a window into human behaviour, lifestyle, and connection.

Working as a live sketch artist inside a luxury brand’s boutique for a special product activation was another experience I didn’t fully anticipate.

I expected long hours, the pressure to sketch quickly, and the need to stay sharp throughout the day—but what surprised me was how much I would learn simply by being immersed in the world of luxury retail.

It was certainly hard work. Focusing intensely, and painting endlessly with watercolour as customers streamed in—especially when the product was selling like a hot cake—pushed my stamina and speed to new limits. The sketching sessions became fast-paced and intense, yet incredibly enjoyable. There’s something magical about watching colours flow and seeing a portrait come alive in minutes, right in front of the customer.

But beyond the art, the real eye-opener was observing how a luxury brand attends to every detail of customer experience. From the way sales personnels greet guests, to how they handle the products, to the subtle professionalism in their tone and gestures—everything is intentional. Everything communicates the brand’s identity.

Spending weeks inside the store allowed me to see the different types of customers, the rhythms of the boutique, and the meticulous effort behind maintaining quality and brand image. It gave me a deeper respect for the invisible work that goes into creating a seamless luxury experience.

No matter how tired I was by the end of the day, the moment a customer’s face brightened when I handed them their personalised sketch made every hour worth it. Those reactions—surprise, joy, a big smile—reminded me that art still has the power to make people feel special.

In the end, after sketching so many pieces for happy-buying customers, I’ve realised that deep down I still searching for something that meets my own expectations—often within very limited time.

Maybe I do ask too much of myself, trying to reach a standard I admire in the works of the masters. But this process has also made one thing very clear: I know exactly what I don’t want in my work. So even when I have to compromise within the context of an event, the brand’s needs, or the fast pace of live sketching, I still strive to create something that I personally believe in—something I’ll like, something that feels true to my artistic voice.