AUSTIN, Texas — Thousands of people are enjoying the live music portion of SXSW – and so is Austin artist Ami Plasse, in his own unique way.
Plasse captures the passion of the music scene with his pens.
"I draw from life all the time, kind of capturing life as I see it kind of happening," Plasse said.
For Plasse, live music is his muse.
"That's where I found the energy really in Austin," Plasse said.
Braving the crowd at the Downtown Austin venue Hotel Vegas, Plasse prepared to get to work.
"I'll always park myself up by the stage so everyone can kind of see what I'm doing after a while. So it's kind of fun, you know?" Plasse said.
Growing up, Plasse used to live draw scenes on the subway. For the past 11 years, Austin's music scene and now SXSW have been his inspiration.
"What's great about here in South By is I'll see the local bands that I know, but also bands from all over the world show up and they're kind of all mixed together," Plassse said.
An iPad is his constant companion.
"One of the fun things about using the iPad [is] it records your drawing as you go. And so, afterwards, you have this like animated movie, which is a record of the whole thing that went on." Plasse said. "So you just kind of move it around a little bit, and it looks super cool."
Sometimes Plasse uses his sketchpad to do what he loves the old-fashioned way. His sketching is like poetry in motion. The straight lines, swirls and twists placed perfectly on the page, coming together with the contrast of light and dark. It's a fluid song all its own.
"I try to capture that first, whether it's a detail of their face, whether it's an expression, whether it's, you know, the way they're moving or interacting with someone else, I capture that and then I start to add on from that," Plasse said.
And after 11 years of drawing in Austin, his talent hasn't gone unnoticed. An exhibit of his work was attended by the subjects of his sketching and many others.
"There were people who had been to the shows, people in the bands that I had drawn, people who are fans of the bands or whatever. And it was just a really wonderful like, experience, having every one kind of seeing all the stuff that I had done and kind of interacting it and just moments that we all shared in different ways," Plasse said.
It's moments like this that Plasse can't wait to share again.