How A Police Sketch Artist Works

By Yap Yen, 23 Nov 2015

Although the portraits that forensic artist John Harvey creates on the job are investigative tools, you cannot deny the artistry involved in each illustration. Harvey recently shared about the process of a police sketch artist in an article with Fast Company.


The process always starts the same, with sketch artists asking the witness to tell them about the person’s face.


Harvey describes the process as “non-creative” since it is mainly creating illustrations from someone else’s memory. He says that the first question is always “tell me about the person’s face”, with the whole process kept open and vague so that the witness can talk and the artist will listen.


According to Harvey, he sees his sketches as more of a reflection of a person’s memory.


A detective will brief Harvey on the case before he sits down with the victim. He will build rapport with the person to get him or her comfortable since he often sees them soon after a traumatic experience. He will then ask about the suspect’s face and begin sketching.

If a witness describes the suspect with a big nose or mouth or eyes, Harvey will start there and draw other features in relation. He also shows the witness photographs of different faces to compare to his drawings. Based on their response, he will refine the illustration until it reflects what the witness remembers.

After seeing Harvey’s work on the @NYCityAlerts and @NYPDnews Twitter feeds, Fort Gansevoort Gallery owner, Adam Shopkorn, approached Harvey to exhibit some of his illustrations.

His show, Fantasy Composites use the same process as his work as a forensic artist, but are not based on real people. Harvey thinks about these make-believe characters, creating backstories for them before putting them on paper.

Visit the website for more details about the show. It is on view at Fort Gansevoort till 10 January 2016.