Sara

Three hours. Sara wore a white horned hat and lace veil for a Christmas-themed portrait tonight, kind of like a reverse Maleficent. There was no way in hell I was going to even attempt rendering the intricacies of all that lace with a three-hour time limit, so I just indicated it as one huge tone. It was fun painting to holiday music! I have been so busy lately, I had forgotten that it was that time of the year again.

Murphy Batman & Saladang Sketches

A couple of pages from my mini moleskine. I'm limiting myself to ballpoint pen sketches because they make me commit to my marks and force me to discover new ways of indicating features and forms with just line. I'm more of a painter than a draftsman (meaning, I have an easier time seeing in terms of tone), so this is my way of attacking that particular weakness of mine. As you can tell, I am making a ton of mistakes, but at least I am learning and can laugh at myself about them.

The adorable dog is James Paick's. He's really hyper (the pup, not my instructor)!

Toni

Variety of quick sketches from two to twenty minutes.

Victoria

Two minute quick sketches and an hour-and-a-half long pose.

Brant

Three hours.

Laura

Twos, fives, a ten, and twenty-fives.

Pocket Monsters & Letecia

I attended a draftsmanship seminar with Marshall Vandruff over the Thanksgiving break and I have to say it was such a breath of fresh air. For some reason or another, I've always been timid about drawing from my imagination - maybe because deep down inside I'm afraid I'm not as competent as I think I might be. Hearing him give his lecture on how easy it can be to draw anything out of your head really instilled in me the confidence to just go for the gusto and give it a shot. I've got to be training that side of myself as an artist anyway, because in order to do concept work I have to make up stuff that doesn't even exist - and I can't always rely on models as crutches to help get the job done.

I often draw monsters or creatures in my sketchbooks, especially if I'm having a particularly stressful day at the office. I can't explain why, but drawing ugly creatures soothes the nerves immensely. I colored the grumpy orc face in Photoshop just to give myself a little bit of painting practice before I head off to bed.

The second image is a pen sketch of my classmate Letecia. Kirk repeated his lecture on the muscles of the leg from last week, so I used that time instead to draw the other students in the room (sorry Kirk). I'm hoping to get faster and more efficient at doing these quick doodles.

Lynette

Two-minute quick sketches and seven-minute leg studies.

Clay

Two-minute quick sketches and an hour-and-a-half long pose.

Alex

Three hours. Alex is a full-time student at LAAFA and the first to introduce me to the school. He's got a really cool and distinctive look.

I'm gonna have to watch my values next go around; the lights are painted too dark in this piece. I always seem to err in one direction or another. Hopefully after a few more paintings I'll wisen up and start nailing the right values consistently.