When I have a painting day ahead of me I like to spend a few moments warming up in my Moleskine Sketchbook. The link on this post to Time Lapse Sketches shows my process. Usually, I’ll have a quick flick through my John Singer Sargent books and choose a portrait to draw. I’ll sharpen up a medium to soft charcoal pencil and launch straight into the study.
The idea is simply to warm up, getting my hand to eye coordination up to speed before tackling a more finished painting. It’s more about the journey than the outcome.
I’ve recently started to do some time lapse videos on my iPhone. This is for folk to see the process of making a quick outline of the head before adding the details of the eyes, nose, mouth, hair etc. These videos have been uploaded to YouTube. If you click on the link it will take you to their site. The image above is a still from the time lapse video. The actual real time of the sketch is no more than twenty minutes.
The sketches you can see above are my copies of John Singer Sargent portraits. I drew them in the National Portrait Gallery in London during an exhibition of his portraits of his friends.