How Long Does It Take To Do A Sketch?

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Larry Marshall

One thing that many of us who sketch on location talk about is how much easier it is to fit sketching into a busy schedule. We contrast it to creating fine art and the need for large blocks of time. We emphasize the point by quoting the many laments from fine artists about not having time to do their art.
There is truth to our claim but, on some level we exaggerate, as when many of us sketch a complex scene, or simply a sketch with lots of detail, we can burn away a couple hours without problem, and many a fine art piece is created in the same amount of time.

But, nevertheless, what we say is true. I sketch almost every day, often more than once a day. Unless you’re making your living as a fine artist, few could make that claim. As I look at what I do and how I do it, I see that there is a ‘trick’ to fitting sketching into a busy schedule, whether it be by wandering the city as a street sketcher or sitting at home doing sketching at the kitchen table. For lack of a term for this trick, I’ll call it time-result flexibility.

I learned this concept from Yvan Breton, the guy who has taught me more than anyone else about drawing. What amazes me about Yvan is his ability to do 30-second sketches, 2-minute sketches, 20-minute sketches, 2-hour sketches, and pieces of fine art requiring multiple sessions and many hours. I guess, to be more precise, it isn’t being able to draw something over differing periods of time as any drawing book will talk about doing gesture sketches, contour sketches, and various forms of more detailed art.

What is impressive about Yvan is that he does this seamlessly, magically fitting a true, realistic sketch into each of these time frames. He has developed the ability to assess his available time and approach and develop his sketch such that, as the wizard Gandalf said in Lord of the Rings, “arrives exactly when he means to” and his sketches are complete. Short time periods, of course, have less detail. Maybe one could argue that they are less precise, but it’s really hard to tell and, to me, that is downright magical.

And while some sketchers fit sketching into their busy schedules by always sketching quickly, I encourage those interested in fine art to consider this alternative approach – adjusting the result of your sketch to the time available for it. This does require adjusting your expectations to time frame but it goes deeper than that. It means being able to identify and prioritize the various aspects of what you’re drawing and organizing your approach to capture the high priority things, in a quick sketch, adding a few more if you have a longer time and only capturing everything when you have an unlimited amount of time.

I know..I know…this is simply restating “just simplify” but that’s not what I’m talking about. We can talk about ‘keep it loose’ til the cows come home but loose is a different debate entirely. Yvan can do this time-result trick with portraits and each of them will look LIKE the person he’s drawing.

I wish I could better describe his thoughts and actions as if I could understand and do it well myself, I might better use words to explain it. I cannot, but it is something that we can all think about and with practice implement in your own work. The first step is to think about the time-result equation as you sketch.

The next step, I’m convinced, is to start drawing in radically different time frames. I was resistant to this idea, mostly because I couldn’t do it. The thought of drawing anything in 30 seconds was beyond my abilities. Heck, the thought of drawing anything in 20 minutes was beyond my abilities until I’d drawn a few hundred things that took 1-2 hours. But you’re all more experienced than I am, right? So give it a try.

Pilot Prera and Lex Gray in a waterbrush

Here are my attempts at this sort of thing, all done within the last week or so. The first is a very quick sketch of a friend. I spent about 30-seconds capturing his shape, and little more, as he was talking to someone.

Is it great art? Nope, but I can look at it and remember that day. I also got some practice capturing a shape quickly. I got to do art while I waited for him. I had fun. I’m just guessing but if I do another 120 of these I bet my ability to do it will improve. What do you think? And how long will that take to do 120 sketches like this? In real sketching time, ONE HOUR, and it will be one hour spent drawing instead of just standing around. Everyone has ‘dead time’ in their life.

Platinum Carbon pen, 3×5 notebook

I was out to lunch with a friend and afterwards he had to stop at a store, run in, and pick something up. I sat in the car for 3-4 minutes. As I sat I realized there was a building before me so I got out my small sketchbook and started drawing. I spent 2-3 minutes on this sketch before my buddy returned and I quickly slapped on some color before scanning it. I could have just sat and watched cars drive by but what fun would that be? Doing 100 of these sketches would require seven hours of waiting for people, sitting in a doctor’s office, waiting for lunch to be served. Sadly, we all spend lots of time doing nothing. And again, the result is fun and I get more experience “seeing” things and recording them. If you did one of them a day, you’d have 365 sketches like this at the end of the year.

Pilot Prera, 3×5 notebook

I was in a mall, again… waiting. I looked up and noticed the large light fixtures that light the mall corridors. I’d been in the mall a gazillion times but never noticed them before. Again, I got out my sketchbook and spent 10-12 minutes drawing one of those lights. I found it something of a challenge as I always have trouble with angles when I have to look up a lot. In the end, though, the waiting became fun and productive.

When I have more time, but not enough for a complex scene, I’ll do something like this:

Pilot Prera, Platinum Carbon Ink, Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9)

Pilot Prera, Platinum Carbon Ink, Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9)

Which one do you like best? Yeah…me too, but those quicker, more spartan sketches allow me to build the ability to do the sketch above in about half an hour.

And when I have a lot of time, I’ll do something like this:

I can’t tell you how long this sketch took me except to say that I need a significant block of time to do a sketch like this. If I only did sketches like this I would have a lot less fun, a lot less often, and I’d have a lot less experience in laying line to paper than I currently have. The time-result ‘trick’ is working for me. My results are not up to what Yvan can produce in a few minutes but if I’m convinced that working in different time frames, fitting in as much drawing as I possibly can into my life, I will improve. Maybe it can help you as well.

Music, Friends and Sketching – A Very Good Day

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Larry Marshall

One of the great things about Quebec City is that there are a lot of free concerts. Many are associated with the conservatory here and are mostly students – really good students.

Another source of free concerts are the ‘mid-day’ concerts associated with the Grand Théâtre de Québec. This venue is the site of operatic and symphonic programs, musical plays, and a bunch of big name but not big venue performers. I saw B.B. King there.

The mid-day concerts are held on the second floor foyer, however, and once they’ve set up a stage and a bunch of chairs, it’s about the size of a decent sit-down night club without the booze, though you can get coffee and danish.

And that’s where I was today, to listen to a fantastic group of six jazz singers, all people too young to have so much talent. I arrived a little after ten AM and the concert didn’t start until eleven, though I got a mini-concert as the group went through a couple numbers, getting warmed up and checking equipment, I suppose. With little to do besides look out the window, that’s what I did. I got together with this pine tree, which also didn’t seem to have much to do, and we made this sketch together. We had a good time together.

But when Yvan arrived, the fickle friend that I am completely ignored my pine tree friend. Yvan and I talked about sketching, his new sketchbook, the Series 400 toned paper that Strathmore is selling and some other stuff. When we could, we went up and staked out some primo sketching seats, saving one for Celine.

Celine and Yvan are quite comfortable doing really great sketches of singers and musicians. Myself, I still struggle with people who are moving around a lot. Heck, who am I kidding. I still have trouble sketching people who are comatose. Yvan has explained, in his patient manner that ALL I have to do is choose a position the person returns to frequently and sketch that position. So far my brain hasn’t gotten the message as it can’t quite sift through all the movement. Practice, practice, practice…

While I tried to sketch the singers, I didn’t do so well. So, I sketched people who were in the audience. These were all very quick sketches – another problem my brain has when in a crowd of people moving around. My brain goes into “you’ve only got a minute, dummy, go fast…blindingly fast.” So, while these spectators were going to stay put for me for the duration of the concert, I was doing 1-2 minute quick sketches. Darn brain.

All of these sketches were done in a 3×5 sketchbook using a Platinum Carbon Black fountain pen, filled with PCB ink. I’ve come to like this pen a lot for detail sketching as it’s really fine, like a .005 Micron. I’m not so sure about it as a people sketching pen for the same reason – the lines are just too fine.

The music was fantastic, being with my sketching buddies always a good time, and there’s no such thing as a bad sketch if you view sketching fun as coming from the process, not the result. I do.

As long as I’m talking about people sketching, here’s a slightly better sketch I did the day before, of a cooperative guy who sat reading. He changed his position only once in the 10 minutes or so I spent sketching him which I thought quite considerate. This sketch was done with my Hero 578 “Chinese calligraphy” (tip bent upward) pen, Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink, and a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook. You can see that I can get variable line thickness from this pen and I think it adds something to the sketch.

Quick Sketching: Trying Out The Platinum Carbon Pen

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Larry Marshall

I just bought a Platinum Carbon Pen from Jet Pens. I’m a fan of Platinum Carbon Black ink and this pen is supposed to have a feed sized specifically for this pigmented ink. Most people say that it has a very fine nib. Giving away the punch line, I think both of these things are true.

The pen comes from Jet Pens looking like this. I carry my pens everywhere and this one is just way too long. It’s designed to look and feel like a dip pen.And so I “fixed” mine. I cut it off long enough to allow the ink cartridge but short enough that I could post the cap while it was in use. For anyone wanting to follow this approach, that’s 6cm from the gold ring around the pen body.

Once cut, I mixed up some epoxy and dabbed the pen up and down in the puddle of epoxy, filling the hole in the end of the pen. Once dry I simply sanded everything smooth and the result looks like this:

Cut down like this, it makes a very comfortable sketching pen. When capped it’s nearly as short as a Kaweco Classic Sport and when posted it’s nearly the length of my Pilot Prera. The balance works out well also.

The pen really shines, though, because of its fine line, which is actually finer than my Pilot Prera (F), which is already finer than a Lamy (XF). The Platinum Carbon lays down a line nearly as fine as a Gillot 303, if you’re familiar with dip pen nibs. Hatching is a dream with this pen.

The Platinum Carbon Black ink cartridge that comes with it is nothing short of spectacular. This ink is the definition of a true black and it’s absolutely waterproof. You can buy this ink in cartridges or in a bottle. I’ve always been a fan of Platinum cartridges because they have a small metal ball that keeps the ink mixed and so I just fill them from a bottle using a pen syringe.

So I sat down and took the pen for a test drive. I did some tonal hatching practice and several small sketches, just to get used to the feel of it. I’ve included a few of those sketches here, all done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6).

I like this pen a lot. It’s a great compliment to my Pilot Prera and Metropolitan pens and may become my ‘go to’ pen for quick sketching due to its super-fine nib.