October 15, 2012

20 minutes - what's the rush?

14 x 11 value study/quick draw - oil on linen panel
 
A friend and I hired a lovely model for our value and color exercise. It amazes me how quickly 20 minutes can fly by when one is trying to put eyeballs and noses in the correct place. I can see I did not do that in this piece but I am allowing myself those errors since this was a 20 minute piece with no room nor time for fixes. The purpose of this quickdraw was to warm up to the model's facial structure in increasingly longer poses. We started with a 5 minute pose, then a 10 minute pose, then 20 minutes then an hour+ with breaks for the model every 20 minutes. The time certainly flew by for us artists, especially under these conditions! Now that I have a value study and a color study, I feel confident I can produce a nice piece from the photos I took during the model session. We'll see :).   

5 comments:

  1. I know how challenging it is to produce a quick portrait study, but with each progressively longer pose you learn more and remember more...I think your final portrait is very likely to be a winner! Actually, this first 20 minute sketch is quite solid...don't be concerned about the tiny imperfections. I hope you will show a photo of the model you are working from.

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  2. I remember how fun my life drawing classes were in college. Time flew by quickly but it was always a great learning experience!

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  3. Ooh what a wonderful idea! I wonder if I might feel a little stressed under such pressure, lol! But you have done a wonderful job here! :0)

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  4. Beautiful value study, Sandy! I love her pose. I don't do as many live model work as I should since I always feel so pressured ..but I'm getting inspired by your work to do one again.!!

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  5. Hi Karen,
    It's so nice to "see" you. Thank you for your nice comment and for stopping by. I am planning to visit your blog soon to catch up; I have missed seeing what you're working on lately.

    Hi Gail and Sandra, thanks so much for the shout-out :)

    Hi Hilda. Thanks so much; I look forward to seeing what you do next!

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