Twenty-Two Drawn Famous Faces by New Orleans artist Chris Sullivan originates from the book Draw 50 Famous Faces by Lee J. Ames. The book illustrates how anyone can draw portraits in nine easy steps. After Sullivan realized that drawing a likeness was possible with Ames’s instruction, he asked a group of creatives gathered for a week-long conference in May 2001 at Lake Eden, North Carolina, to draw portraits of celebrities and politicians using the Ames method. Sullivan notes, “I’d coax or cajole friends to pick a face to draw,” with some individuals such as Queen Elizabeth drawn three times and Barbra Streisand twice.

As evident in the graphite and pen drawings, the artists used an array of approaches, from serious to half-hearted to doubtful. The project ultimately evolved into Sullivan’s self-published book Twenty-Two Drawn Famous Faces.