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Classes started at Virginia Commonwealth University on Aug. 21 for everyone but Chris Kindred, who decided to skip that day.

Even the slackest of students manage to show up the first day, but it wasn’t apathy that kept the communication arts student from class. Rather, he had an unusual opportunity that even his professors saw as too good to pass up.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Kindred had no idea that instead of attending class, he would be observing former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s trial at the Richmond Federal Courthouse and serving as court sketch artist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Newspaper editors contacted the university on Wednesday, Aug. 20, looking for artists. Kindred had just woken up from a nap when he saw the call for a sketch artist posted on the Department of Communication Arts Facebook group. He scanned a few of his sketches, sent them to the newspaper and the gig was his.

Missing class had the senior “a little stressed at first, but I gave my professors a heads-up about what I was doing,” Kindred said. “Because those classes are essentially focused in illustration, it was totally encouraged that I attend the hearings.”

On Thursday, Kindred arrived at the courthouse at 7 a.m. His editor told him to capture essential elements of the scene, such as mood, or compositions with specific people interacting, such as McDonnell and attorney Hank Asbill. Kindred switched between using colored pencil underdrawings and going straight in with a pen or mechanical pencil.

“Everything I do, however, goes through a couple watercolor washes afterwards. The lines are where I have my fun,” he said, noting that functioning as his position as an artist gave him an interesting vantage point. “I felt way more respected than I expected as an artist, probably because my role is a necessity at the moment. As a spectator though, it’s intense. I’ve equated this case to watching a football game with words. It’s really exciting to see the objections and defensive strategies from the former governor’s testimony.”

Several factors contributed to Kindred getting this assignment. For one, he’s worked at and contributed content to the Student Media Center and The Commonwealth Times for two years, learning both how to create work for publications as well as how to run one. He wouldn’t have been as ready for this opportunity, he said, if not for that experience.

Yet Kindred almost didn’t come to VCU at all. For a while, he had been eyeing the Maryland Institute College of Art, but kept noticing skilled artists coming from the VCU School of the Arts and “had a huge itch to get near where this action was happening,” he said.

“The real hook for me was the CommArts department,” he said. “When I was a high school senior in ’09, I received a portfolio review from [highly respected associate professor] Sterling Hundley, who gave me a thorough analysis of my work in only a few minutes. I don’t know if that’s a testament to how far I had to go or his amazing perception of skill. Since that review, I was determined to make it in. It would take a denial from the university, another two years, on top of a year of [art foundation] before I made it to one of his classes. All of my other backup plans revolved around transferring to communication arts.”

Keeping his eye on that end goal paid off. At VCU, Kindred said, he became more ambitious and gained a huge community of peers whose stunning work keeps him motivated. Without that ambition and motivation, he might never have applied for the Times-Dispatch undertaking. Which would have been a shame, because the education he received in the courtroom could never have been achieved in the classroom alone.

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