The first time Anita Lester drew Erin Patterson, she made the mistake of trying to be too accurate. Lester, a courtroom artist, had just two minutes to sketch the triple murderer during her brief pre-trial hearing and spent it trying to perfectly illustrate “a little head behind a glass screen in Morwell”. What she later realised is that it’s more important to capture the mood of the accused than the exact lines of their face.
“What makes a good courtroom artist is being able to bring the public into the courtroom to witness the emotion of the person on trial,” she says. “You’re actually trying to just capture a feeling or a gesture that might resonate. It’s not about being the best artist in the world.”
