Interviews: Metalsketchvs

In an age dominated by smartphone photos and instant video clips, one artist has chosen a slower, more unpredictable medium to capture the spirit of live music: the sketchbook. Known online as MetalSketchvs, this Lisbon-based urban sketcher transforms the energy of concerts into raw, hand-drawn impressions created on the spot, often in the middle of packed audiences.

What began as casual reposts of old drawings on Instagram quickly grew into a dedicated project. Combining live sketches with music clips, the account evolved into a visual diary of gigs and festivals, documenting not only the musicians on stage but also the atmosphere, the movement, and the chaos surrounding them. The result is a body of work that is at once spontaneous, imperfect, and deeply authentic.

Armed with a pocket sketchbook, pens, and a wrist light, MetalSketchvs braves the challenges of low lighting, restless crowds, and the unpredictability of live performance. Each drawing becomes more than a portrait — it is a memory frozen in time, a testament to the connection between artist, band, and audience.

In this interview, we speak with MetalSketchvs about the origins of this unusual practice, the lessons learned from sketching under pressure, and the future of live music illustration.

1. How did the idea of combining live sketches with music come about?

Simply happened when Instagram implemented that feature, adding music to posts, which helped me want to repost past gig sketches I had posted before that feature on my main account. That, and later seeing a mosaic display of some sketches I did of my first festival sketching marathon, led me to create a specific account to join all my previous concert sketches that were already a few, and add all the future sketches, which ended up creating this project of live sketching alone in concerts with more investment of time and experience.

2. What was your very first experience doing a live sketch at a concert like? What did you learn from it?

It was on the third day of UnderTheDoom Festival in 2019, when I decided to try for the first time to sketch a band on stage that ended up being the Portuguese neo-grunge band Pântano, which opened. I always carry a small sketchbook and various pens with me, and went on with it, though it resulted in a very lousy sketch, in my opinion. The lack of light, the continuous movement of the vocalist Nuno on stage, were the major difficulties, compared to my normal conditions to sketch at the regular urban sketching meetings I attend.

I'm an urban sketcher, part of the community of the Urban Sketchers Portugal, and I follow the Urban Sketcher's Manifesto. One of the rules of this Manifesto is to publish the work online, so I ended up publishing a live story with it, tagging the band, as it ended. Decided to accept the result, even not happy or comfortable with it. I did insist after, with the second band, Ardours, and tried to sketch Mariangela Demurtas, but it ended so bad, I didn't even finish it, and jumped on a last try on Kris Laurent, the guitarist, which turned out acceptable. But I felt annoyed with the experience and the results, so I stopped, put the sketchbook in my pocket, and saw the rest of the bands like usual. Later, when I arrived home, I discovered a direct message on my phone from Pântano saying they went looking for me in the venue to buy me a beer! I couldn´t believe it! It was a lousy sketch!! So I learned that even if your sketch is not good for you, it might be appreciated by someone else. And it's simply a sketch, a step, a part of a process. I guess this episode was important for me to insist again on the next concerts, to try again and evolve, and find solutions to tackle the difficulties.

3. How do you prepare before a live event? Do you work on rough sketches beforehand or improvise completely?

I don´t do any sketching preparation; rather, I prepare the materials and equipment to take with me, pens, sketchbook, wrist light, earplugs, etc. My focus is to not forget anything that I might need later. I do get a bit anxious prior, but as soon as I start sketching, the anxiety goes away. Thou, at the venue, before I start, I spend the first song observing the band, their instruments, how they behave on stage, and if there's a band member covering another, like the drummer, for example, very common, I have to change position so I can see all on stage. So I study the mic stands to guess where and how many band elements are.

4. What materials do you usually use for your sketches? Do you prefer pencil, ink, watercolor…?

Pens mostly! Why? I'm a sketcher more than a painter. I love to draw and use lines to define shapes. And because I choose to sketch in the middle of the audience, where usually there's a lack of space, I end up having to work with the sketchbook vertically, so inks or watercolors would be difficult to apply; they would drip. A pen and a sketchbook are more practical and simple to carry, or manage in chaos and confusing moments, and still register something on paper. The work with inks, watercolors, etc, I leave that later for the post-production at home, where I can work over a horizontal surface.

5. Do you have any routine or ritual that helps you get inspired before sketching at a concert?

Just to be open-minded, prepared to sketch whatever I find on stage. That's it. That's something I really like, not knowing what I will find. It's exciting! I like that challenge. I often do not listen to anything from an unknown band, to not be negatively conditioned, which provides me a neutral approach to any unknown band, so my experience ends up being the result of the live performance. So either I end up enjoying the music and band, or if not, that's ok, because the experience of sketching the band is most of the time cool, so I end up having almost always a good experience.

6. What are the main differences between drawing in the studio and sketching live at a concert, surrounded by music and movement?

Totally opposite, really. In a studio, you have the perfect conditions, all the materials, space, light, and resources. In a concert, you have to deal with a lot of challenges - lack of light, people around you, circle pits, moshes, crowd surfing, heat, noise, strong flashes of stage lighting, people hitting your arm that is drawing, adding extra lines to the sketch lol... In live concerts, you adjust to an approach more simple and direct approach. In the studio, you have peace, and in a concert, lots of things can go wrong. One of the things that I enjoy more about sketching live concerts is knowing that failure and mistakes are present by default, and the challenge is to deal with them, trying to run away from them and reach some result, even in situations most people would think to be impossible. And it's possible. Even in the most difficult conditions, I've managed to achieve something, even against my own beliefs. Sketching live concerts is way more fun, haha, that's for sure!!

7. What has been the most challenging concert you’ve sketched so far, and why? 

The two most difficult were Architects at Sala Tejo, last 25 March, and Jinjer in June at EvilLive. Both with total crowd smashing, no space to sketch, continuous crowd movement due to circle pits that push people, or surprise crowd-surfing bodies coming above from behind me. But for the 38º °C heat, I would say Jinjer. It still makes me smile to remember it. Plus, the irony of seeing a huge "DRAW" behind them in the main banner when the track "Draw your weapon" was played, made me laugh, and I even raised the sketchbook with one hand and the pen-"weapon" with the other. Best part, feeling hands touching my back, turning around and seeing the curious eyes of dozens of people asking me to show the sketch and seeing their joyful expressions and surprised faces. In the end it's these episodes that become the most rewarding memories and experiences!

8. How long does it usually take you to complete each sketch during a live show? Do you do one per song, or capture specific moments?

I do one by band, because I want to enjoy the final part of the concerts like everyone else. There were very few exceptions to sketch the same band /artist twice. Concerning time, it is variable. Depending on how many band elements are on stage, if they keep moving and switching sides on stage during performance, if there are fumes or strong lights that blind me, or if there's too much going on with moshes, circle pits, or crowd surfing, that will interrupt me. In calm conditions, I usually take an average sketch of around 15/20min. I also don't want to disturb and distract who's around me with my sketching or with the red light I use, so the focus can be on the band on stage, not me.

9. How would you describe your artistic style when it comes to sketching? What makes it unique?

Organic, lol, but always honest, truthful. In essence, it's just urban sketching, but an extreme, alternative urban sketching approach, hahah. What makes it unique is that every sketch ends up being a moment of time and a place, captured in a sketchbook, that won't repeat ever again, and each sketch holds the global memories of that concert, for me, for the band, and for everyone that was there, to remember later.

10. How has your work evolved since your first post as “MetalSketchvs” up to now?

I started with a small pocket sketchbook with too thin paper, not suitable for adding watercolors. As I started to get frustrated with the lack of area of paper to sketch, or how the paper would get if I added too much water with the watercolours, it made me look for bigger and better sketchbooks. Having a watercolour paper sketchbook, improved a lot my post productions, as you can see if you scroll through my sketch collection. And also, the practice the experience I get helps improve my technique in sketching, like in everything, you apply your focus and time. I guess I've managed to create a sort of functional "kit", so that my only focus is what I have in front of me to draw. Also, getting an improvised wrist light to draw helped me sketch in low light conditions, and I've missed sketching some bands before because of that, when I tried to sketch during the light moments of the stage lights. It was frustrating back then.

11. Where does your visual inspiration come from? Are there artists, illustrators, or movements that strongly influence your technique?

I don't think I can say that I have one visual inspiration in the first sense. I simply sketch by observation, which has really no creative approach, though I choose to sketch the bands on stage, the stage, and the crowd, to capture, to represent a general point of view of us all in the audience. There are various artists that I admire and have influenced me in my urban sketch path in the past, like Donald Owen Colley, Alfredo Ugarte Gondra (Urumo), or Pedro Alves, a fellow Portuguese urban sketcher, but the organic, raw results I sometimes get have reminded me very much of Eduardo Salavisa's expressive, simple sketching style. When I started taking this more seriously, and having already a few sketches and thinking this could be my thing, I did a search around to see if there were more people doing this type of work, besides my urban sketcher colleague Joaquim Espadaneira from Évora. I was happy to discover, admire, and follow great artists like Kim Diaz Holm, Rolf Schröter, David Rossetti, and a few more, which makes me feel not alone. I love to find more people sketching in concerts! People to share and talk about this experience.

12. You’ve posted sketches of bands like Muse — how was that experience for you?

It was a regular sketching experience, I would say. For the case of Muse in the last NOS ALIVE, I enjoyed the fact that I managed to capture the full height of the stage and represent the phenomenal stage dynamic, led blocks that transformed their full performance. Had to choose one of the displays while the concert was happening. Only counterpart was that Muse elements had to remain very small, but otherwise, if I were closer to the stage, I wouldn't be able to sketch the full stage, so in the end, you will always win or lose something. Accept what you managed to achieve. We always have more chances to try something different in the next gig.

13. Do you have any future collaborations or artistic projects you’re excited about?

Well, not really. There have been some talks, but so far nothing has occurred. I mostly keep my focus on sketching as many gigs as possible, especially gigs I want to attend. Let us see what the future brings.

14. You often share or reblog other artists’ work on your feed. What motivates you to share that type of content?

I enjoy sharing and spreading either artistic work or bands, and music that I like. We are all part of a music community, so why not spread good stuff that others might like and follow, and discover? I like to discover new bands, new music, and new artists. Also, I don't see my followers with this type of distance between the artist and the fans, I see them like me, music lovers, music maniacs, and I'm one like everyone else. I just tend to be crazy enough to sketch at concerts.

15. What role do social media platforms play for you as an artist? How do you decide what to share?

I still don't see yet if the AI invasion will affect my manual, raw, organic work in any sense. And I like to think that it won´t, and this ends up being a sort of escape from technology. But it's a technological solution to gather and present my live sketches, to share with numerous people around the world who might come up with any content of my sketches or activity. I do like to see the mosaic of my sketches that resembles a collection. And having the possibility to add a sample of music to the sketch helps it gain more expression, helps you remember the concert, and also can promote the band for those who don't know them. I do have this purpose that it might help someone discover a new band to like.

16. How has your Instagram community grown over time, and how do you usually engage with your followers?

It has had a slow increase since I created it. I never really cared much about it, to be honest. So far, it's been only a spot where I gather all the sketches and videos from my live concerts. Usually, I post late at night, since I work during the day and only have time to finish my sketches a few hours before going to sleep. The big increase in followers usually happens after I post the festival's content, with bands sharing my sketches or stories, or from videos where I show the full set of sketches of a Festival. In conclusion, I just want people to enjoy the sketches and follow if they wish. That's it.

17. Have you ever received feedback from fans that had a big impact on your work?

It's cool to receive feedback from people who approach me while I'm sketching, or from people that had seen me in a prior concert sketching, which is a memory they keep. That's very rewarding if I think about it. You enriched someone's experience with a memory of you sketching. That's very cool. Then I usually end up showing them the finished sketch from that concert they saw me in. There's no direct impact on my work itself, but it provides good feelings that I keep with me while I'm doing this. Like bonus points on this mission.

18. What do you hope to achieve in the coming years with your “livesketching” project?

I still don't think much about it so far. My focus is still on other things, like just sketch, sketch, and sketch some more. So far, my goals have been things like sketching all bands of a festival, sketching all in black and white only, like I'm doing now for Extramuralhas Festival. Maybe one day I'll take a pause and overview of all my works, with a big number and variety of sketches, and think of themed exhibitions, book editions, posters, t-shirts... We'll see.

19. Do you have an artistic dream you’d like to accomplish — such as illustrating a full tour or exhibiting your works?

So far, my biggest dreams have been, for example, to sketch artists that I love and admire, and later to show them and have them sign my sketches, like it already happened, for example, with Chelsea Wolfe and Opeth! It gets emotional sometimes to have artists you love and admire enjoying your sketch. It's an awesome feeling. I didn't even think about it when I started. Exhibiting my works would be cool. Having my sketches in a band's merch would be cooler, or having a sketch of mine on an LP Live album cover, for example. Or collaborating with artists or bands that I love and admire, that would be the ultimate dream. But I'm still far from that, I think.

20. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start doing live sketches at concerts?

Be brave! Be prepared for anything! Don´t be judgmental of your results! Embrace failure! Laugh about it! Try again! Remember that each sketch is just a part of your process, it's an attempt, one exercise, not art (some might disagree)! Not sacred! You'll improve with the amount of sketches you'll do, just focus on reaching a comfortable sketch kit formula (for example, I currently use a portrait A5 Moleskine watercolour sketchbook + various permanent ink pens case + wrist light). Then, trust the process, test different things, learn from failures, sketch, sketch, sketch, and most of all, have fun doing it. If in the end, the next day, you look at the result and you smile or laugh about it, you are on the right track :)