jayme del rosario | sketchblog

I’ve been getting finicky lately and needed to “reset” meaning take what I learned from Rick Piloco’s sketch class (which I took a few years ago). Think big, get the right value/color right, put it down and leave it alone.

My smallest brush was a large round size 6. It was a great way to prevent myself from getting too tight too soon so that I could properly work from general to specific. Also, in a 3 hour sketch (I’m just used to much longer) I usually run out of time before I an get to anything specific and I find that this can be a good thing for me.

oil sketch, 18" x 24"

Here’s a 3-hour portrait sketch done in graphite.

Jackie, graphite on paper

Here’s a quick 3-hour portrait sketch of Whittnie that I did at the studio during Kate’s quick portrait sketch class. The exercise is a push towards color accuracy, but is highly dependent on a very good drawing and structural knowledge of the head/portrait. A block-in in 20 minutes is one of the hardest things I find that we do at the studio, though it’s great practice. It’s quite an adrenaline rush. Ay….3 hours flies!

3-hour quick portrait sketch, Whittnie

Andrew Loomis and Matthew Innis’ latest blog post on his blog, Underpaintings, offers great reading material for these quick portraits.

I realized how behind I’ve been on the sketch part of this “sketchblog”. Before I forget my initial intention for this blog I should mention, more of a reminder to myself, that a big part of this was to throw raw ideas and sketches out there so that it’s more of a sketchbook and process oriented project of sorts. So here’s an old sketch to re-calibrate my thoughts and posts.

open sketch class drawing

When I get stuck on longer poses and projects, it’s very easy to forget how helpful a sketch session can be. This was a nice pose, and it was great practice in trying to track anatomical landmarks as her pelvis mimicked the weight of a pendulum throwing her contrapposto to and fro…it was actually more funny than frustrating. This taught me that sometimes it’s futile; you just have to let go and give up on the pose corrections. Accept it as a challenge for one session. Like a wise friend once said, “After all, it’s life drawing. They’re going to move!”