Some of this week's 5-minute Sketches and Completed Work

It's so interesting to see the my choices of lines made in the 5-minute sketches below.  I get a feel for each image, though most don't have enough information to actually anticipate what the final drawing ends up looking like.

I use a pen to sketch because it requires commitment to the line.  Not every line is right.  Sometimes a line results in a face being too narrow, too short, or too long; the nose being too low; the tilt of the head being off, etc. Anything can happen.  That said, it's the commitment to practice and not being shy about working on things that may not work out.  That also means mistakes are important.  They help us to see patterns of our mistake-making that we can learn from and work on correcting.  

For example, I tend to underestimate the space needed for a face with hair to fit within my substrate size. You can see two of the efforts below have hair that goes off the top of the page.  

In order to work on weak areas -- it is important for me to complete each piece.  These aren't pieces of art for sale; they are pieces of art for learning, gaining confidence, improving my seeing. and improving the use of my tools for specific results.  So, the completed pieces take an extra 25-60 minutes for detailing and shading.  

Looking at the completed work below, I know my shading is steadily improving (especially around the neck and collar bone), and two of the four did fit within the substrate size -- especially the one with the tribal decoration. This is good work!