Back to basics

Imagine the scene.  Ten people sketching furiously to a strict time limit of ten seconds, one life model pose after another, papers flying everywhere, tossed to the floor on each ring of the bell for a new pose, new piece of paper, new sketch.  A veritable storm of drawing paper and charcoal dust...

10 second sketch

(10s is seriously quick!

I'm not sure I even looked at the paper in that time)

I spent most of Saturday at the Northern Film School taking a fascinating workshop on Drawing Figures for Animation.  Five solid hours of live drawing, with the longest sitting at 20 minutes - exhausting but exhilarating.  And seriously good practice.  We did a mixture of contour drawings, gesture drawings and charicatures with charcoal, pencil and marker pens.  I came away with about eighty sketches, and a whole lot more confidence in figure drawing. 

30 second sketch

Sometimes it is worth putting a time limit on your work to focus your attention and really make you look.  Then it's up to you whether you stick to the rules, break the rules or abandon the rules altogether!

(2 minute sketch)

When was the last time you played around in your sketchbook?