Ten minutes with conté

 I wasn't on my A game this last session, taking a bit too long with each drawing and not really getting the results I wanted.  This feels a bit rough and it was a really great pose, so I guess it was just another lost opportunity.

Gestures of Samm

 Samm graciously stepped in for an ailing Patience this week.  As always, a great job from out stalwart model, and these are the gesture drawings to prove it.

Forty five minutes

 This was fun to draw.  The hands, the cloth and the languid pose made for some wonderful challenges.  

The third quarter hour sketch

 Ah, I was so reminded of Frank Frazetta's "Ghoul Queen" that I just couldn't separate myself from that image.

 

The second quarter hour sketch

 Such a classic pin-up pose.  Coulda been a pretty nice had I had more, you guessed it, time.

The first quarter hour sketch

 Lost edges and lines.  

Gestures... just gestures... always gestures

See the title of this post.
 

40+ and still coming up short

 So many interesting aspects to this pose and I just couldn't concentrate on a singular direction.  This became very academic and that's unfortunate.  Her hand was pretty interesting but I really loved the knees and lower legs.  I made a mess of her face so I erased it and spent a bit more time trying to be accurate.  I only got so far.  Ultimately this is just a practice sketch.

15 or so

 This was a lot of fun to draw.  So much movement with forms and lines creating such a fluid image.  Another one that would benefit from more time.

10 minute missed opportunity

 This might be my favorite of the session only because it was coming along so nicely from a structural standpoint.  Could have been 30 minutes at least.  C'est la vie.

5 minute torso...

 ... or at least a partial torso.  Hey, whatcha want for five minutes?  

Thursday's gestures on Friday

 Our models put a lot of thought into the poses they present us with.  Very much appreciated.  This week is Patience.

40 minute study

 

Charcoal in forty.

20 minute study

 

Charcoal in twenty.

10 minute study #2

 

Conté in ten.

10 minute study #1

 

Charcoal & conté in ten.

Gestures from Thursday

 Yep, one minute sketches.  Movin' on...

Oddly, my favorite sketch of the evening

 I just fell in love with the left hand and arm.  The right foot was starting to come together but I ran out of time.  This just felt like a solid sketch.

The long pose

I had some fun delving into the way the shapes and masses related to each other.  Again, more drapery to complement the languorous pose.  
 

Kinda abstract

 Marks and shapes and shadows.  Even a little crumpled up drapery.

Patience in charcoal

 Quick little vignette in ten.  Nuthin' much.

Gestures of Patience

 Always a pleasure when Patience has the time for us.  Fun gesture poses.

Favorite sketch of the night

 Probably my most well thought out drawing of the evening.  Love the nature of the cast shadows and the ambiguity of the figure itself.

Relaxed

 The long pose for the evening.  It turned out... okay.

Fifteen and change

 Some really intriguing shadows in the mid-section that I may have gotten a tad bit too smitten with.  Those shapes and shadows always pull me in and it all becomes very abstract.

Just sittin' 'round

 I became intrigued with the shadows and the curvature.  Nice mass to work with.

Samm in ten poses

 Yep, back to the gestures.  Samm is just fun to draw.

Long pose

 I'm happy with a couple aspects of this one, but overall I just didn't focus on making an interesting drawing.

Kinda design-y

 

I like where this was going, just didn't quite get there.

Torso...

 ...what else is there to say.  Nothing particularly interesting about this sketch.

Another five

 A little conté head study that didn't turn out too bad.

No gestures this week

 

We got a late start to the evening so we jumped into a couple of fives and then a couple of fifteens.  This is the first five minute sketch of the night.

45 minute head study

 Pretty pleased with this one, as well.  The lights were doing there job during this session.  Some great cast shadows to work with, for sure.

Shapes and shadows

 Yeah, I like this.  I finally got a hand that I'm not frustrated with and some pretty nice cast shadows.

Vague

 Kind of an amorphous little drawing.  There are some aspects that I like and some that are just, well, not finished.

Head study

 A little five minute study of Samm's noggin.

Gestures of, you guessed it, Samm

 Yep, we are down to Samm as our only consistent model.  As much as I love drawing her, we really need to give her a break on occasion and find two or more models to work with our group.

Long pose

 I did get to the head and face in this 45 minute pose.  However, I waited too long and the model needed to give her left arm and hand a quick break and her head didn't end up in the same position.  I tried to draw the new angle but the variables were too many and I ended up erasing the second effort as well.  Hence, yet another faceless figure study from yours truly.

Subtle twist

 Subtle rendering of the musculature.  This was about 15 minutes of work and I still couldn't make it to the head and face.  Really enjoyed the twist and capturing that aspect of this pose.

Shadows and shapes

 I think I just fell into a groove.  Nothing overly impressive, just kinda average.  

10 minutes to start the night...

 ...and it didn't get any better as the night went on.

Gestures with Samm

 Samm took some wonderful, inspired gestures last night.  Very relaxed and natural.

Standing around for 45 minutes

 This turned out fairly well.  So much to focus on and also so much to ignore, or it would become an exercise in over-rendering.  Great way to end the first session of 2026.