A reflection on the impact of portrait sketching as a mode of active presence. 'Portrait Sketch Encounter' was a series of sketches and conversations undertaken by artist Victoria Evans with members of the public over a three-day residency at Pig Rock Bothy, Modern One, Edinburgh, in October 2014, leading on from a previous portraiture project undertaken in 2012, which together have provoked her to ask questions about the nature of the sitter/artist dynamic and how ideas around presence, becoming, and interaction might be used to reimagine the contested territory of the gaze in art.