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One cartoonist's quest to draw every single person in New York (yes, that means you, too)

By Virginia K. Smith  | August 20, 2015 - 1:59PM
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Consider this the extreme beta version of Humans of New York: artist Jason Polan is on a mission to draw every single person in New York, and is already 30,000 deep, according to CityLab, which spoke with Polan this week. Those first sketches have been collected in the aptly-titled book Every Person in New York, chronicling everything from the scrum of tourists at the MoMA to, inevitably, Donald Trump's hair.

And Polan keeps to keep plugging along—"I’ve always thought of it as a forever project,” he told the site.

If you'd like to be immortalized in one of his sketches (that is, assuming you haven't already been), Polan says that people can email him an intersection, time, and identifying information, and he'll show up to take down a "stealthy two-minute sketch," albeit anonymously. "I don't interact with them," he explained to CityLab. "I want it to be a surprise." He also prefers candid shots of his subjects, saying, "I don't want them posing for what I'm doing. It works better when it's completely natural."

You can check out more of Polan's drawings—and scour the site for your own likeness—at his blog, Every Person in New York.

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