Weary of one-style caricature art, a Cooper Union grad decided to form a city-based and roving artistic collective

by matt Scanlon

When the Soviet Union-born, New York-based multimedia artist Boris Rasin examined the field of live artistic entertainment typically offered at weddings, birthdays, and corporate gatherings, he noticed something missing. While most artists at such events offer typical carnival-style caricatures, there was a lack of artwork that had a unique and sophisticated style. Rasin, a graduate of the Cooper Union School of Art, decided to combine a fine arts background with his interest in editorial cartooning to offer an original service—creating quick and stylized party portraits in a signature style. He reached out to friends from art school and invited them to help out at bigger functions that required extra hands (while Rasin worked with colorful brush pen markers, his colleagues used acrylic paint and pens). Others came on board who used watercolor, ink, and iPads to create their sketches. That’s when Drawn Together NYC really came together.

“My philosophy is simple,” he said. “I hire talented people and let them shine in the style and medium they are most proficient in.”

Drawn Together NYC currently has ten artists working events in New York, New Jersey, and Long Island. Rachel Merrill’s watercolor sketches, for example, offer the unique effervescence of that medium, while Kerry Simmons’s pencil and iPad drawings are delicate and precise. Hannah Rawe’s black-and-white ink drawings are minimal and controlled, while Walker Fee’s acrylic sketches are loose and painterly. The result is a diverse team of draftsmen, painters, and sketchers, who create portraits, caricatures, and fashion illustrations at approximately five minutes per subject.

Besides party portraits, Rasin and his team offer a variety of custom artistic services, ranging from illustrated marriage proposals and decorative painting to large-scale murals and fine art or illustration commissions.

“The artists are all freelancers with their own studio practices and expertise,” the owner explained. “There is so much great talent here, and my aim is to put it to use. Whatever special project a client sends our way, there’s a good chance one of our artists can execute it beautifully.”

Drawn Together NYC
917.657.2746 / drawntogethernyc.com