Nick Sayers

Artist / Maker / Graphic Designer Inspired by Maths / Science / Recycling Brighton & Hove, UK

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Habib in Mali, who I drew via Zoom a couple of weeks ago for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic portraits project. It’s not often I get to draw a bonafide celebrity during this project, but Habib Koité is legit famous as a Malian guitarist who has toured the world, worked with famous US blues artists, and released many hit albums. It was a pleasure and honour to meet him. I like my drawing, although he said his face looks too “rond”. I did most of the drawing after our session, from video stills – there were a lot of interruptions and technical glitches during our call. I think this is the first time I’ve drawn someone with dreads – I sometimes feel like a barber, chatting away while working on my subject’s hairdo! An important detail to point out: the amulet Habib wears around his neck to ward off evil spirits. The stripes on his top are the common African flag colours red, green and gold. 🇲🇱 I’m tempted to colour them in! #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqabulHoioT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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On 13 March, I drew famous guitar musician Habib Koité (“kwa-teh”) in Mali, via Zoom, for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. Our tenuous connection goes years back. I heard his song ‘Manssa Cise’ in a UK television documentary around 2000, immediately looked it up, and found an MP3 copy that has been in my music library ever since (Habib later told me this is an old tune of the Malinke and Fula people, often played on traditional instruments). Last year, by chance, I found out a friend was roadying for Habib’s band on a brief UK tour. I met him backstage at a local gig, where he agreed to sit for a portrait when he got back to Mali. We tried to meet a couple of times, but he was either busy with his toddler son, or lying in bed to escape the heat outside (it’s currently 40ºC in the day, and rising). When we finally connected on Zoom, there were audio problems and a few misunderstandings. We held the conversation in Habib’s English and my broken French. Born in Senegal, Habib moved to Mali as a small child. His parents were both musicians: his dad a guitarist and his mum a singer. He’s had great success as a professional musician himself – touring America (LA is his favourite city), collaborating with famous US blues artists, and playing gigs across Europe (Belgium is his spiritual home there). I asked if he likes any particular musical genre, but he said there is a continuity between his traditional African music and modern blues. In 2019 he launched a new album and was going on tour with it, but then the pandemic changed everything. Suddenly none of the US or European concert halls were taking gigs, and there were no flights. Luckily his record producer gave him some money to live on. Post-Covid, he’s enjoying being back on the road, and was looking forward to an upcoming Tuareg music gathering in Mali, and a blues festival in Paris later in the spring. I was just settling into the session, when Habib’s friends drove by, and he had to go. #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqaZ6QAIxVt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Some very expressive Bicycle Cog Spirograph drawings by pupils at Claremont School the other week, with my Giant Drawing Machines. Word of the day: Hypotrochoid! (The technical maths term for a Spirograph flower pattern.) The kids were very clued-up about prime numbers too, which dictate how complex or simple these patterns are. @claremontprepschool @claremont_school @claremont_stem #spirograph #spirographart #GiantDrawingMachines #hypotrochoid #mathart #scicomm #squircle (at Claremont Prep School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqXvSiLoqNT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Posted @withregram • @claremontprepschool Back to British Science Week and our lucky children have had another visitor - this time Nick Sayers came in to mix science with art through using a giant pantograph and spirograph to teach the children about ratios and prime numbers... #science #art #BSW23 @NickSayers (at Claremont Prep School) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp2nAfqIeQo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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🇪🇺 I’m sure there’s some sort of metaphor to be drawn here… The old European flag I had flying above my art studio has sadly succumbed to the wind and weather, but I’ve replaced it with a bright new one. I still live in hope we’ll come out of our little island isolation and rejoin our cultural and economic neighbours across the channel. #iloveeurope #european #europeanatheart #iloveeu #🇪🇺 #flags (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp2PpXeoIhw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Tanya in Luxembourg, whose portrait I drew via Zoom last week for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. This session was a blast! Tanya was full of energy and chat, and had her art materials out to paint me while I was drawing her. You can see her paint brush, palette and water jar in the foreground. Other background details: the Mac desktop computer we tried unsuccessfully to set up Zoom on, her jewellery hanging from the wall, and her grandma’s wardrobe. Interestingly, having drawn people in 122 countries, only two names have repeated: Dan/Daniel/Daniela (Czechia, Bolivia, Australia, Mozambique) and now Tanya/Tonya/Tonja (Luxembourg, Andorra, Barbados, Slovenia). I’m not sure if that’s a significant data point! I think I got an OK likeness of Tanya. Her face was a moving target to draw! The dot between her eyes is a jewelled bindi, mentioned in my story. Do you know anyone in the remaining European micro-nations? Lichtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City…? #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpX7wanoLKt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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On Thursday afternoon I met Tanya in Luxembourg, via Zoom, and drew her portrait for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. During lockdown I taught science and art at a local home school group, and I was recently introduced to Tanya by one of the parent-teachers there who’d once lived in Luxembourg. Tanya joined me from the desk in her home that once belonged to her grandma. She was preparing for a yoga teaching session, but had watercolours out to paint me while I drew her. She lives in the nation’s second largest city. It’s all relative though – the national population is just over twice that of Brighton (the UK city I live in). In contrast, Tanya grew up in London, to a Luxembourgish father and English mum, both artists themselves. She moved to Luxembourg in her twenties. From her vantage point there she’s been dismayed by the UK’s deterioration since she left: the racism of Brexit, the demonisation of the Left (her country is “more socialist than France”, with free public transport for all), and the discrediting of the UK-Swedish AstraZeneca Covid vaccine by US drug companies. She’s sceptical of the push for mass vaccination, and the fear instilled by national media. She lives mostly on her own, doesn’t come into contact with people regularly, and is in good health, so she prefers to rely on her body’s natural immunity. Back in the 90s she managed bars and clubs, and had a very different life. Being such a small country, club promoters were treated like celebrities and she enjoyed the glamour this afforded her. The country then didn’t have many cultural institutions – galleries, museums, concerts etc. She said it was a stark contrast coming from the UK, with its history of colonial cultural plunder for art and treasures. Luxembourg has been invaded, while the UK invaded others. I couldn’t help noticing the jewelled bindi on her forehead, a throwback to her travels in Asia. She said it marks herself out as eccentric in a very formal country. #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpX0U4Bo3AJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Verónica and Leida in Venezuela, who I drew last Friday via Zoom for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic portraits project. I wasn’t entirely confident about this portrait during the session, but I think I rescued it by adding background details and tweaking their facial features. This included – for the first time in this project – judicial use of Posca fine liner pen to white over some of the black biro marks I’d made! Originally, each woman’s eyes weren’t quite looking in the same direction, Leida’s mouth was too dark at the edge, and my own mouth was gaping a little. I’ve tried not to make these kind of edits before, as I like the way using a ballpoint pen commits me to a line and I can’t faff around too much. Some details I like in this drawing: the paintings of birds and a landscape, the photo of Verónica with her mum (Leida’s daughter Pamela, who joined us at the start of the call), Leida’s bold zebra print shirt, a bottle of medicine and big book (a bible?) just behind their shoulders. I’ve only got two countries in South America left to draw: Guyana and Suriname. Do you know anyone there? #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co-r7AeIzE8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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On Friday afternoon/morning, I met Verónica and her grandmother Laida in Venezuela, via Zoom, and drew their portrait for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. Verónica did her best to translate Spanish to English for me. However, she seemed a little distracted by other people in the room (her mum and boyfriend) and her mobile phone. I’d met them via a friend of a friend who knew Laida’s nephew in Brighton. He hasn’t been able to visit Venezuela and see his family there since before the pandemic. We had tried to connect for this portrait session twice before: first there was an audio problem, and next there was an internet outage where they live. This isn’t unusual – Venezuela's public services are collapsing after decades of political corruption and mismanagement. For instance, even before the pandemic in 2019 there was a series of nationwide electrical blackouts lasting for weeks. They had to light the house with candles and cook on gas. I asked if life was better under Hugo Chavez, who has the reputation outside Venezuela of fighting for the poor and against US imperialism. They said he wasn’t much better than the current incumbent, president Maduro. Laida remembers life in the 1960s being better. It was around then that she met her husband. Sadly he died over 20 years ago. Since retirement, Laida enjoys keeping active by walking around the neighbourhood and going to Catholic church. However, during lockdown it wasn't safe for her to go out, due to her age. Verónica, 51 years her junior, is an only child. She works remotely for a UK marketing company, coordinating social media campaigns for clients including a jeweller. She got very animated when I asked about Venezuelan food – showing me photos of arepa and mandocas (patties made from Harina PAN corn flour), empanadas, hallacas and dishes cooked with plantain. She also showed me her scrawny adopted street cat. My little kitty was sleeping on the bed behind me, so it was nice to compare pets. #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co-BHhOo-QM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Many little hands, many giant drawing machine drawings! I had a blast bringing my Giant Pantograph and Bicycle Spirograph activities to University College School Pre-Prep in Hampstead, London, on Wednesday, coordinated by Artists In Schools. Year 1 and 2 boys got to draw big sand Spirograph patterns, miniature outlines of their bodies, multicoloured Spirographs with a single-speed child’s bike, and little Spirographs with bike gear sprockets and laser-cut wheels. This was my first drawing machines gig since the pandemic, and my first time driving solo in the big city. It went brilliantly. Want to book me at your school or science/art event? Get in touch! @ucshampstead @artistsinschools #GiantDrawingMachines #pantograph #spirograph #spirographart #hypotrochoid #sciencecommunication #scicomm #mathart #mathematicalart (at University College School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoNTeeMIUe3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Lovely to sit sketching a portrait of my mum at Depot cinema cafe in Lewes, while she darned a couple of moth holes in the Icelandic jumper she’d knitted for me for Christmas 2021. Crafty family! Nice to be drawing from real life, too, rather than a Zoom screen. The jumper was partly inspired by my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic portrait session with musician Svavar Knútur in Reykjavik, Iceland, at the heart of lockdown in December 2020. A couple of women came over just as we were going, and said they enjoyed watching us. They were going to draw us in action, and take a photo! #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Depot Cinema, Kitchen & Bar) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnwqwRMo4vu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Swiss glitch! While we were setting up for my #NickDrawsNationals Zoom portrait of Audrey in Switzerland, she tried to use her laptop camera. Unfortunately her laptop camera was f***ed. It made for some interesting glitch-art though. I like how my selfie window is smeared across the screen. Audrey reverted to using her mobile phone instead. Surprisingly this level of computer malfunction hasn’t happened much during my project. #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals #glitch #glitchart (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnwlAyxIGVG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Audrey in her Lausanne apartment, Switzerland. I drew her portrait via Zoom at the weekend for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. This was my 120th country – over 60% of the world’s 197 nations! (I’m actually working to 200, including Antarctica, Arctic Circle and outer space!) Only Moldova, Bosnia and Kosovo left of the large European states – do you know anyone from there? I really like this drawing, and feel I got a good likeness of Audrey. It was a lovely portrait session too – we chatted easily and at length about a wide variety of subjects. She was friendly and put me at ease. My one regret is I didn’t get to draw her sitting at her balcony, with its great view of Lake Geneva, old city houses and mountains. Audrey held a fleecy comforter blanket in her lap to keep cosy while she sat. I have to admit I “cheated” and drew this from a video still – she moved it a lot! Quite a big contrast with my last portrait: from a heavily tattooed Asian punk rocker in Burma to a cosmopolitan European criminologist! #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnj_RcCoX7y/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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On Saturday at midday I chatted with Audrey in Switzerland, via Zoom, and drew her portrait for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. This was one of the last big European countries on my list to draw, but it proved surprisingly hard to find an appropriate sitter. I know some Swiss-Italian artists from international art festivals I’ve been to, but none were keen, and I wanted to find someone “true Swiss”. I then went down a fruitless rabbit hole, looking for a Swiss particle physicist working at CERN … And then, by chance, I met a German woman at a Brighton beach clean last summer. She recommended a Swiss-French friend, who put me in touch with her sister, who was keen to be involved. Audrey was super chatty during our session, and patiently sat for almost five hours (with initial technical glitches). She lives in a Lausanne apartment, with a stunning view of Lake Geneva, mountains and old city houses. Sadly the lighting wasn’t right to draw her on her balcony. When the pandemic struck she was on a yoga retreat with her mum, taking a break from a criminology MA. They’d switched their phones off, and only heard about lockdown on return to Geneva. She met her boyfriend during this time – he was her friend’s flatmate and they began flirting during the friends’ regular “drinking beer together apart” Zoom calls. She loves cooking, and on a hiking trip with her boyfriend, carried a full fondue set and camping stove, so they could eat melted cheese up a mountain top. We talked about national and racial identity: Swiss (distinct but tied to France, Germany and Italy), Egyptian Jewish (her grandfather), Swiss minority Romansh language, political “neutrality” and direct democracy (few Swiss people can name the president, as the leader changes each year), and Europe (despite being at the continent’s heart, Switzerland isn’t an EU member). We chatted about fun stuff too: TV series, true crime podcasts, creative writing, travel, food, teens, online dating… #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnjnWFGojlp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Kyaw, of punk group Rebel Riot Band, in Myanmar (Burma). I drew his portrait last week for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. For some reason I only got as far as drawing his face with biro, and pencilling in the background, during our portrait session. The rest I did afterwards from video stills. It was very detailed and time-consuming, but I enjoyed drawing the lettering of the posters on his wall. I even learned how to write “punk” in Burmese (ပန့်ခ်). I like how our white-on-black typographic T-shirts complement and contrast with each other – ‘Chaos Day’ Thai punk band vs ‘Helvetica’ documentary film! Unfortunately cropped out on the right of my A5 drawing, for Instagram’s square format: Kyaw’s acoustic and electric guitars, studded and badge-covered black leather punk jacket, multi-buckled belt, arm tattoos (“F**K [THE SYSTEM]”), and St Pauli (German left-wing political football club) skull and crossbones flag. I note that Kyaw’s portrait is flanked by skulls – the recent death of his brother was a tragic element of his story. #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnbfI02osCx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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On Wednesday morning/evening I met Kyaw in Myanmar (Burma), via Zoom, and drew his portrait for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. We were introduced by a British heavy metal music journalist, who wrote about Kyaw’s punk group, Rebel Riot Band, when they toured England, Germany and Switzerland in 2017. Myanmar has always been poor, but the last two years have been especially hard – there was a military coup during the pandemic, after democratic elections didn’t go in the army’s favour. Harsh lockdown rules meant people couldn’t go out to earn a living for fear of being arrested or shot. Although such rules have since been relaxed, there remains a military curfew after midnight, when it is still dangerous to go outside. Last summer clothes factory workers, who make garments for major international brands, went on strike in protest about pay and human rights abuses. Kyaw has been involved in these demonstrations. He has screen-printed posters in support of the strikers, and works in food kitchens to feed them. He has also performed protest songs critical of the junta. It’s risky – during lockdown, people were imprisoned for gathering in groups of more than five, and for all forms of political dissent. Unrest has been even worse in rural areas outside the capital Yangon (Rangoon). There was a bright side to all this though – Kyaw met his yoga teacher girlfriend working at the food kitchen. Much like their punk/yoga relationship, Kyaw says his attitude is “50% namaste, 50% f**k you!” – apt in a country whose main religion is conservative Buddhism. He was recently in Thailand for the launch of his band’s new album. Sadly, only a few days in, Kyaw received news that one of his two younger brothers was run over by a train and killed while in South Korea. The funeral will be soon. The brother had been working on a cruise ship, and was already abroad when his wife gave birth to their baby. He only ever got to see his newborn child via a video call. #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnWgS8DIDRW/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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I only drew nine international Zoom pandemic portraits during 2022, versus 81 in 2021, and an astonishing 39 in the first month and a half of my #NickDrawsNationals project (I started on 17 Nov 2020, in UK winter lockdown). Lebanon, Colombia, Congo (Democratic Republic), Fiji, Mozambique, Georgia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Antarctica. The project has slowed for various reasons: harder to find portrait sitters as the list of countries yet to be drawn diminishes; the “end” of the pandemic and lockdown; other work, projects, commissions and events slowly starting to happen again; and family and friends social life re-emerging “in real life”. Less time for contemplation of the lessons the pandemic has taught us about climate change, consumerism and easy access to global travel. I’d really like to publish my documentary art project as a book, somehow… #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnHK2_fIyyK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=