Nicole

Four hours. I'm still working through the four-color Zorn palette, trying to understand the fundamentals of painting before I add more variety to my repertoire. I've been studying a lot of work by Sean Cheetham, to figure out how he indicates features with a minimum amount of brushstrokes.

Cassie, Week 4

Two hours. We continued refining our grisaille paintings this week. I probably have another hour left in this one to bring it to a level I'll be satisfied with (specifically, I need to block in the background, finesse the hair, and focus on turning the form more with strict attention paid to warms and cools). I had to ask for so much help from our instructor Ara to make it through our class without tearing my hair out out of frustration. This painting business is a lot tougher than it looks.

Amy

Three hours. The scribbles on the right-hand side are Kevin's notes on how to use a handful of values to address ambient lighting as well as a stark reminder on the importance of grouping shapes in order to help communicate a more effective read.

Eric

Twenty-fives and fifties. Eric, who works at LAAFA, volunteered to step in for the model who didn't show up tonight. The first couple of drawings were focused on laying in the structure of the head; the third's the beginning of a full value render.

Aaron

Five minutes. The model failed to show up tonight, so our head drawing instructor stepped in for some warm-up fives.

Cecilia

Two to seven minutes, plus a two-hour long pose. The nicer quick sketches at the bottom of the first image are my instructor's. Had lots of help overall today.

Keith

Five to ten minutes. I'm beginning to see results from all those hours doing quick sketch. I feel as if I've achieved a greater understanding of both rhythm and form. It's great to hit such plateaus.

Cassie, Week 3

Two hours. I've begun the grisaille underpainting, which for our purposes is composed of ivory black, lead white, and burnt umber. The grisaille will act as a blueprint upon which we can base our color decisions off of. This underpainting will be brought to a finish before moving onto a more expanded color palette.

Cassie

45 minutes. It might have been rude to doodle during my instructor's grisaille demo, but I couldn't help it. At least this sketch will help me memorize her face so that I'm better prepared when I tackle the longer, full-color painting later.

Nicole

Two hours. I'm trying to focus on grouping together various shapes for clearer reads.