The Game Plan

I'm about thirty days in, I feel like I've identified my trouble areas, and have started developing a plan.  The big picture plan is to increase my "drawing vocabulary" as quickly and efficiently as possible.  The drawing vocabulary is the mental library of images and artist builds up by drawing and painting from life.  This library is later used (along with reference images) when the artist draws or paints from their imagination.  To build this library, I need to be able to capture images quickly while on the go, so sketching outdoors, and in public places.  Unfortunately, I don't have the perception acuity to capture these images fast enough to keep up with the fluidity of every day life.

In general, when trying to capture a scene "in the wild", you have between thirty seconds and a minute.  People don't sit still for too terribly long.  While I think it's impossible to gather any detail in that amount of time, I want to be at a point where I can lock down the major shapes of a drawing in a minute or less.  Currently it takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for me to accomplish this, depending on the complexity of the scene.  I have a lot of work to do.

The main focus of my plan is on honing my perceptual skills, decreasing the amount of time it takes to draft an image outline by increasing my perceptual accuracy.  Here it is;

Daily practices:

• 30 minutes of gesture drawing every day.  - While typically used as a warm up, it is also an excellent exercise for sharpening the artist's perception.  The essence of gesture drawing is to capture the form and movement of an image as quickly as possible.  Typically a model will hold a pose for a very short period of time (20 seconds to 5 minutes) and the artist must attempt to portray that pose within the allotted time.
• 30 minutes of technical skills drawing every day. - This practice is the meat and potatoes of art.  It includes such things as anatomy studies, color studies, value studies, drawing repetition (drawing the same subject over and over within shorter and shorter time deadlines), media control, and similar practices.  This is the less than exciting, but absolutely critical practice  required for true mastery.  
• 1 hour of work on weekly goals.

Weekly goals:

• One major project per week.  These projects are currently in flux, but I want to create at least one full painting a week.  

I'm also contemplating setting some monthly projects in stone.  Such as going on an urban sketching tour once a month or going to a life drawing session to work from live models.  When I have more details I will post them.  I will be updating the blog every Tuesday and Thursday as a rule, and additional days whenever the urge takes me.  I look forward to sharing the next phase of this quest with you.  Until next time!