Doug

Three to ten minutes for the quick sketches, two hours for the long pose.

Another Midnight Doodle

Four hours? I lost track to be honest. Some reference used, although by the halfway mark I straight up abandoned it and started painting from imagination. Just another sketch so I can get used to the medium and check to see if I remember all the lessons I've learned from my watercolor sketches.

Jee

Five and ten minutes. It's amazing what a single one-on-one session with the right teacher will do for you. After Erik showed me how to properly do a 5-minute quick sketch last week, everything just kind of fell into place afterward. My marks are looser but also more confident, and I'm far less stressed out about the whole process of quick sketch in general. I actually find it quite meditative these days.

Cassie, Week 2

Three hours in charcoal pencil. I practically redrew the entire head this week just to nail shape placement to my satisfaction. I even went so far as to double-check everything in a mirror. As a result, it's a far more accurate likeness of Cassie.

I'll transfer this drawing over to a primed canvas in a couple of days.

Eric

Two hours. Some forms are turning a bit strange. I'll have to be more careful about value relationships in the future.

Michael

Five minute quick sketches and a one-and-a-half hour pose. Aaron Westerberg gave me excellent critiques on my head drawing tonight as well as on the one I drew of Daniella a few days back. I'll document some of the pointers he gave so I can keep them in mind for later:

1. Once you finish the initial light/dark separation, begin to organize your halftones cleanly, moving from the shadow areas into the light (remember the procedures you learned from Rick's head drawing class).

2. Vary the lines you do decide to keep in the drawing, but opt to obliterate line as much as possible and let tone/mass do the heavy lifting for you. Lose those edges. Recall what Meadow said about lines being pocket change - imagine you've only got enough to afford a few of them, so make them count.

3. Adding a thin, light sliver of a line next to a highlight can make it pop like nobody's business. It's all about contrast.

4. Watch the placement of and clearly define the boundaries of your shapes. Mask the drawing in parts to determine which harmonize and which need to be finessed further.

5. Measure twice, draw once. Watch the length of that neck on Michael.

I'm really grateful to have talented teachers who can give such honest and thorough critiques.

Thanks Benjamin

Three hours. Reference used for the face. The rest from imagination (heh).

I didn't feel like sleeping in early tonight, so I tried my hand at painting digitally. Whenever I get too comfortable in a particular medium, I usually switch to another to keep challenged, and digital has always been a real pain in the ass to work with for me. It's become surprisingly easier to handle after working so much with watercolors though (they're very similar in application).

In case you were wondering about the wild mix of colors: I was inspired to experiment after browsing today through the blog of Chinese comic artist BENJAMIN, one of my biggest inspirations. I love the way he paints women with such bold, energetic strokes of color. He's amazing.

I guess you can also say this work is also reminiscent of John Asaro, although I wasn't necessarily thinking about him when I was painting this.

I really enjoyed doing this study. I'll continue to explore more in this medium when I can.

Paul

Over an hour. This and the previous sketch were done tonight in my Fabriano sketchbook at my cousin Paul's birthday party. I'm trying to get into the habit of bringing it along with me wherever I go so I'm constantly drawing from life. If you're wondering how these guys were able to stand still for such a long time, then I've got two words for you:

Guitar Hero.

Jason

About thirty minutes.

Natalie

Two to five minutes for the quick sketches, two hours for the long pose. After watching Kirk Shinmoto from Art Center and Erik Gist from Watts do some demos, I'm beginning to understand the importance of loosening up my line work for my lay-ins. I'm having a lot of fun with quick sketch these days and the things I learn there are slowly seeping into my brain, which helps me tackle the long poses better. Slowly but surely I'm improving.