Angela

Three hours.

Nicole

Twenty-five and fifty minutes.

Noah

Charcoal, one hour. Watercolor with white gouache, two-and-a-half hours. The charcoal portrait's not too shabby considering the time frame. If I had another set I'd drive more darks in.

I'm very happy with the colors on the watercolor portrait but the eyes are starting to look a bit wonky. Lesson learned: never strive for accuracy when the model's dozing off.

Joseph

Tens and fifteens.

Sasha

Two-and-a-half hours. Combination of different charcoal tools - Primo pencils, compressed charcoal, vine charcoal, charcoal powder, etc. This drawing still needs a bit of work, so I'll finesse it over the weekend.

Sasha was the first model I ever drew at Watts Atelier. My initial drawing of her ended up being something like this. Good god.

Looking back, my growth since then, in just two short months, has been tremendous. I consider it a testament to the school's strong fundamentals program and welcoming atmosphere. I'm looking forward to spending years training with them.

Jeremy

Three hours. This and the following portrait were done at a three-day workshop Jeff Watts held on alternative portrait drawing techniques. We used a combination of charcoal powder moistened with water and laid on with a brush along with graphite pencil. It's a close approximation to actually painting - and a perfect blend of techniques I've been trying out in my recent watercolor and charcoal studies.

Toni

Two-and-a-half hours. I had planned on painting in my watercolor sketchbook today, but halfway to the workshop I realized I forgot it at home. I really shouldn't be in a rush to head out the door all the time.

Jasmine

Charcoal, two hours. Watercolor with white gouache, three hours. Today was the last day of my head drawing class with Meadow Gist. It may not seem apparent at first glance but I learned so much from her class; my confidence in drawing accurate heads has grown tremendously in such a short time. I think it's because she stresses simplicity and the fundamentals above all else. I am really grateful to have been able to study under her.

Robert

Three hours.

Alma

Four hours. I watched the new Zhaoming Wu Drawing the Head in Charcoal DVD last night, and it inspired me to go back to the painterly style of drawing I learned from LAAFA. We had a gorgeous model tonight. She could easily pass as the younger sister of Penelope Cruz. Of course, attractive models are a double-edged sword. Gazing at a radiant beauty for hours can be a dream but trying to capture them on paper can sometimes be a nightmare. To tell you the truth, I almost gave up on this piece after the second set, because things just weren't turning out right. I realized I was so stressed out about nailing her beauty that it was negatively affecting my mood, and therefore my line work. It got so bad that I actually started another piece on newsprint, only to come to an understanding that I would probably go through the same ordeal the second time around, and that I might as well soldier on and try to salvage the first, instead of ending up with two half-assed pieces at the end of the night. Now that I see the final result, I'm glad I stuck with it. I can still see areas that I can improve upon, but they're pretty minor. Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out, considering the shaky beginning.

Trace

Five to fifteen minutes. Trace has an uncanny Lenny Kravitz vibe to his persona. Great poses tonight.

Head Studies

One hour each. Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper. Still concentrating on the underlying structure of the head. I've got eighteen more of these to finish for this week's homework; hopefully I can squeeze in some time to do more before the next session.

Mike

Twenty minutes each. I'm trying to simplify things for a clear read. I need to be more aware of overlapping structures and on the importance of making sure my drawings read three-dimensionally before laying down tone.

Carol

Twenty-five minutes each, focusing on values and indicating forms with simple brush strokes. Not my best effort, but I had fun, and that's what counts at the end of the day.

Oh, and about the neck on the watercolor portrait I did yesterday... my instructor Nathan Fowkes agrees as well that it feels a bit too small. Reading his note in my sketchbook actually comes as a relief for me, since it means I haven't lost the ability to view my work with a critical eye. Being able to spot your own mistakes and what you can do next time to improve upon your work is an essential part of the growth process. I end up learning much more from all the terrible drawings and paintings I've done than from my more successful ones.

Laura

Watercolor with white gouache, three hours. Charcoal, two hours. When I got home from the workshop and looked at the watercolor painting again, the neck began to bother me, since it looks a bit too tiny on her. I was pondering fixing it, but then I glanced over at my charcoal drawing of her from the same session and noticed I've drawn a thin neck there too. Now I can't tell if this is just one of my tendencies or if a slim neck is a characteristic of the model herself. Hm.

Gerald

Two to five minutes.

Nikki

Three hours.

Adam

Three hours each. Adam works in law enforcement and fashions together armor in his spare time. We swapped stories about being into Macross and Dungeons & Dragons as kids. I wish I did a better job rendering his chainmail in watercolor - I can't figure out an effective method of indicating that type of material with such a slippery medium.

Michael

Four hours. I forgot to grab fast food for dinner tonight, and I ended up sharing a helping of green curry with Michael that someone else had brought in. He does fire dancing on the side. His intense gaze always makes him a blast to draw. Throughout the entire session, I took my time to build up the painting slowly, remembering past mistakes and successes, and incorporating what I learned from both into this piece. All that patience looks like it paid off. I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Kirsten

Two and a half hours. A fill light with red gel was added for tonight's session and that threw me completely off, since the shadows were no longer their typical cold shade of blue. I spent most of the night racking my brain trying to mix the right colors and temperatures. In hindsight, I probably should have paid more attention to the background - although I'm debating if toning it a complementary color as I normally do would have been a good idea in this case, as I kind of enjoy the overall warm feel this painting has.

Heather

Tens and twenty.

Michael

One hour. My Sketching From Life instructor Nathan Fowkes showed us a quick and messy way to get solid tonal head drawings. First, we lay in the head using a modified version of the Reilly method, then once we're confident about the accuracy of our line placement, we block in the shadows using compressed charcoal and smear it around to get halftones. A little touch-up here and there using a sharpened charcoal pencil for the dark accents and various erasers for the highlights and we're finished.

Sarah

Three hours. Sarah's always fun to draw and paint. Today she wore an outfit that screamed Elizabeth Bathory (the Blood Countess), so I chose the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night original soundtrack as mood music to go along with her look. Either I'm getting better or the music was the secret ingredient I needed to add to the mix; it was easier for me to see color fluctuations than in the past, and in general, I've become more adept at handling brushes and controlling the flow of paint. I'm excited to see how my oil paintings will look after all these trial runs in watercolor.

Robert

Two to five minutes. I don't know what happened, but my speed increased dramatically this week. I think it's because I'm more confident these days about making a commitment to the lines I put down, an assurance that comes from drawing literally hundreds of these quick sketches over the past year and a half and burning the hand movements into muscle memory. I've developed the ability to tell kinesthetically if a line feels a little off or is too long. I still have a ways to go, but I can't tell you how glad I am to have achieved even this small success.

Natalie

Three hours.

Pam

Charcoal, two hours. Watercolor with white gouache, two and a half hours. Pam trains art models for a living. My instructor Stan says she does surprisingly dynamic poses for quicksketches. I'm looking forward to that; she was really fun to draw and paint today.

Alma

Three to twenty five minutes. Yes, that is indeed a violin in one of the quick sketches. Alma, our model for tonight, happens to be a classically trained musician. It struck me that her curves and the shape she made with her pose closely matched that of her beloved instrument. It was a beautiful example of how a passion for something can literally define a person.

Monsters

I've been weary these days of doing only studies, so I bought myself a little sketchbook to flex my creative muscles. My aim with it is to provide not only a break from the norm but to also test my retention of all that I've learned so far. These three portraits of monsters were all drawn without reference. Don't ask me what the thing on the bottom right is. I have no idea either.

Fey

Derwent Venetian Red with Derwent Chinese White on Canson Moonstone paper. Three hours. Tonight, for fun, I went back to the original mix of paper and pencils I first learned how to draw heads on.

Scott

Five minute poses. Tonight at the workshop I sat next to Tim Gula, an American comic book artist and animator. After the first set he looked over at my pad and gave his approval of my quick sketches. I told him thanks, I'm trying. He quickly recognized that I had studied with Kevin Chen, and so we got to talking about the different art schools here in the Los Angeles area. Turns out that he teaches a quick sketch class of his own Monday nights over at the California Art Institute. He invited me to drop on in anytime to check it out. I think I will.

Adrienne

Two to five minute studies focusing on simple light and shadow patterns. I tapped out near the end of class today because my wrist was aching like hell. Got one of those newfangled IcyHot sleeves on now to soothe the pain. It's true, I've been pushing myself hard these days, so maybe it's a good idea to take a break for a day or two. I just hope the pain isn't symptomatic of something worse - if you catch my drift.

Nicole

Watercolor with white gouache, two hours. Charcoal, one hour.