Get your portrait done for 200 bucks (video)

Have you got the perfect apartment and decorated it to your taste, but still feel that something is missing to bring it all together?

Maybe you need a portrait of yourself or your dear one on the wall.

Then have we got the offer for you! You can have your portrait done in just 15 minutes if you go to the Sangsad Bhaban area in Dhaka. You’ll find a few artists sketching portraits right there on the footpath in front of the parliament.

Five to six artists often sit there in the evening. Why do they sit here? All of them said sketching portraits is what they love to do. Because, hobbies are priceless.    

Mijan Rahaman, an artist, sits on the footpath in front of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in Dhaka. Photo: Monika Roy

They are mixing pleasure with profit by doing this work on the side.

Mijan Rahaman and Tahmid Ashik Khan said they felt happy when they sit down to sketch the portraits of a person.

They charge Tk 200 to 300 to draw a portrait from mobile photos and Tk 500 for a live portrait. Besides, they take from Tk 600 up to Tk 1000 if anybody wants additional artwork on the portrait.  They only take 15 to 20 minutes to complete the work.

Not only Mijan and Ashik but also Nantu, Bishu and Niaz do portraits here.

Tahmid Ashik Khan sketches a portrait of an woman from a photograph. Photo: Monika Roy

Of them, Mijan uses different media for his work. His art is not limited to portraits. He also works with terracotta, oil paintings and watercolour. He, a freelance artist, is the painter of the mural inside the Department of Agricultural Extension building at Khamarbari in Dhaka, he claimed.

They can make 10 to 12 portraits in a day’s work.

Five to six artists sit in front of the Sangsad Bhaban in the evening. Photo: Monika Roy

You can find them at different fairs like the Ekushey Book Fair, the annual trade fair and other social and cultural programmes.