Erin

Five hours. It never ceases to amaze me how I never am able to finish five-hour drawings yet still manage to pump out halfway-decent three-hour pieces.

Adair

Three hours, on and off. I spent most of the time at the workshop shooting the shit with Chris Sears, a fellow ConceptArt.org member and whose work I admire quite a bit. Cool cat; glad I finally got to meet him in person.

Karole

Two-and-a-half hours. I probably could have done this in less time, but I didn't measure accurately in the beginning and spent a good two sets fixing the lay-in for a better likeness (I still think I didn't nail it). Word to the wise - even if you have acutely developed eyes from years of drawing, always take the time to measure. Then when you've done that, measure again. Oh, and while you're at it, why don't you measure one last time, just for good measure.

When I drop by uninstructed workshops, I sometimes strike up a conversation with the models, and occasionally the question of what school I go to comes up. I typically give them an honest answer: I currently don't attend school on a full-time basis, primarily because I can't afford the high cost of tuition, nor am I willing to take out massive loans to fund a second education. But that response feels like a smokescreen to me, because I'm slowly realizing, with the help of sound advice from people I trust and admire, that I probably don't need school, at least in the form of a prefabricated, one-size-fits-all curriculum. I'm self-critical enough to understand what my strengths and weaknesses are, and self-motivated enough to write my own course list to address those deficiencies. In this sense, I'm undertaking a very personal sort of education - kind of like the Montessori method but applied to adults.

Of course, I could be dead wrong about this, and maybe I really do need to throw myself into a full-time commitment, but the potpourri approach I've been taking so far has been really rewarding. I mean, why settle for one good school when you can have a taste of them all?

Speed #3

1.5 hours from reference. Colors are not even close to the original, which was my intention, because I wanted to see how much I could push temperature relationships while keeping the underlying value structure intact.

Jee

Three hours. 11" x 14" on masonite. I missed a night in Joseph Todorovitch's Portrait and Figure Drawing class a couple of weeks ago due to illness, so I decided to schedule the make-up session in my teacher and friend Rick Morris' class, Fundamentals of Painting. I first took this class almost a year ago, so walking in tonight kind of felt like a homecoming of sorts. We had the choice of either working on the head or the figure, and I chose the latter. I've never painted a full figure before, but that didn't really worry me too much, because one of the best ways to get better is to do what terrifies you. It doesn't matter if the work you create is good or not; what's important is that you learned something in the process.

Still, all in all, it turned out pretty well, and painting the full figure wasn't as arduous an experience as I thought. Thanks again for all the help and tips tonight, Rick. I guess now that I know I can paint them with some measure of success, I should probably do more figures in the future...

Hahamongna Watershed Park

5" x 7"s on masonite gessoboards. I spent my Sunday over at Hahamongna Watershed Park, off the 210 near Art Center College of Design, for a plein air landscape painting workshop led by Tim Solliday. His primary focus for the class was to capture the conditions and tone of light and not necessarily dwell on the details. Thus, there was a great deal of emphasis on the fundamentals, namely - big shapes before small; warms advancing and cools receding; keeping a coherent value structure between the foreground, middle distance, and background; striving for a circular or figure-eight composition, and so on and so forth.

I whipped up the first painting in a little over a couple of hours, which is a bit embarrassing to admit, because it doesn't look like much for all that time spent. After Tim worked his magic on my sketch and passed along a few helpful pointers, I ran off to another spot while we still had light and painted a second composition - in fifteen minutes flat. I don't have a developed enough eye at the moment to tell you if it ended up being better than the first, but at least I realized I shouldn't have to take so long to reach a similar level of finish.

I'd like to do more sketches in the weeks to come; it's always a pleasure to be painting in the great outdoors.

Mara

Two hours each from the same workshop session.

Quante

... and finally ended the day at ten in the evening after doing sets of two minute, five minute, ten minute, and twenty minute quick sketches of Quante, who was modeling next door from where Malo was. The orange drawings are Kirk Shinmoto's crits by the way - he's always super helpful. What a pal.

Your average Joe might think it's brutal to draw for ten plus hours, but to someone who loves creating art like myself, it felt like a leisurely stroll through the park.

Malo

... then I drove on over to Art Center to do this two hour head drawing of Malo...

Keith

Three hours for the long pose, one-and-a-half-hours for the head drawing. Today I did a drawing marathon. Started things off at LAAFA at ten in the morning...

Nicole

Three hours. Somebody dropped an easel onto my drawing board as I was setting up for the workshop tonight and it ripped a gaping hole through my quick sketches and long pose drawing of Liz from yesterday. He didn't even bother to say sorry either. I started to get kind of mad, but then realized, what's the point, man... it was obviously an accident and he probably didn't even notice the damage had been done. I'm not really one to rock the boat, so I simply let it go. The drawing was done out of practice anyway, and besides, I didn't want to let anger cloud my judgment, because your art is a reflection of your inner thoughts and feelings. I just kept telling myself during the workshop, go ahead and mourn its loss, but don't fret too much, just do a better drawing than last night's to make up for it. I hope I did.

After the workshop ended, my buddy Uyen lectured me that at my level, I should be drawing on more archival papers, not on this flimsy newsprint crap. He's got a point there. However, I think the reason why I'm able to let go and see my work merely as stepping stones to something better is precisely why I use shoddy paper. It doesn't let me get too emotionally attached to it if somebody inadvertently rips it to shreds.

Liz

Five minute quick sketches and a two-and-a-half hour pose. Liz liked the drawing I did of her tonight, so I promised I would send her a copy to include in a scrapbook she's putting together about her modeling career. Other artists who have drawn her and whose work will be included in her book are Jeremy Lipking and James Jean... man, I feel simultaneously unworthy and incredibly flattered to be lumped alongside such heavyweights!

Bonnie

Threes and fives for the quick sketches, two hours for the long pose. Great model tonight, in such a fantastic pose (set up by my buddy Uyen).

Jenny

Fives and twenty-fives.

Amy

Three hours for the costumed pose, two hours for the head drawing. I figured that now I've discovered I can work so fast, I might as well do two poses instead of one at the Sunday workshops. Double the practice, double the rate of progress!

Yuko

One-and-a-half hours. I haven't drawn Yuko in such a long time, so I was really happy to see she was the model for our workshop tonight. I only had a limited time to draw, so I squeezed this one out as fast as I could. I'm kind of shocked actually, because I didn't think I could pump out a halfway decent drawing in such a short time span. I guess you never really know until you try.

Parker

Five-minute quick sketches and a two-hour pose.

Sick

Two~three hours. No reference to test myself. I wasn't feeling well this morning so I took a sick day and created a visual representation of how I feel. Or I just wanted to paint an old undead vampirey guy and play around with some brushes.

Laura

Twos, fives, a seven, and twenty-fives. Most of the time I have subpar drawing nights, but every so often, I get a mostly decent one.

Jee

Four hours.

Mike

Fives and a twenty-five.

Michael

Fives, tens, and fifteens.

Adair

Fives and a two-hour pose.

Sara

Fives and a two-hour pose.