Two-Minute Drawings

This is a great warm-up exercise for any drawing session. But you have to approach it as just an exercise. If you take any trace of an attitude that you are actually trying to create art you will probably have some degree of difficulty. It seems that only when you approach this as just a warm-up exercise (think of runner's stretches before the 10k) then, without the pretense of 'making art' one is free to fine-tune the hand-eye coordination and sometimes, mirabile dictu, you end up creating a bit of art.

One secret seems to be to just keep your drawing hand moving all the time.

Things I've noticed after doing these exercises over the years: In the first pass I tend to make the head too large and in the subsequent minute and a half, almost always end up reducing it. Sometimes it helps me to add the head last, after fixing the rest of the torso. It helps to think of these drawing as 'gestural' that is aiming to capture the gesture of the body, where the weight is borne and where the muscles are working and where they are at rest.

Sometimes our progress is measured in baby steps. In the drawings above, I was particularly pleased to have caught the position of Robin's fingers in her left hand in the drawing that is second from bottom.

After doing about ten two minute drawings, spending five or ten minutes seems like an amazing luxury!