How long your drawings should be (Most get this wrong)

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This is a basic question that the majority of students get wrong at first. Some will rush through their drawings too fast. Some will take way too long on each drawing which makes their practice inefficient. With this video, I hope to give you a really clear strategy for figuring out how long your drawings should be.
We'll discuss quick sketches versus full length rendered drawings, and cover time limits from 1 minute to 4+ hours. Let me know how long your drawings are and why in the comments.

[@NonsenseMediatedDecay]

Very very true. It pains me to hear a lot of advice for novices to do quick sketches without a solid foundation, you can only practice mistakes that way.

[@TocharaehD]

100% agree with this comment. Slow down and get the foundations set first before you start into quick sketches.

[@Sharp-usaal]

I sincerely value your mentorship and instructional input.

[@suefraser5257]

More great advice Kenzo and really helpful to have ideas of how to limit sketching time. I particularly like limiting the number of lines which I think will help me avoid adding too many fiddly, detail lines before getting the overall pose.

[@lovelifedrawing]

Glad it was helpful Sue!

[@TheArrieman]

I feel like I learned the most, at least for the beginning stages, to work on a single piece in 5 minute intervals, spread out randomly throughout the week. It’s more about observing that way and noticing the ‘mistakes’.

[@monomakes]

Great advice! Especially the time management thing - I've been so all over the place RE. the time I spend on pieces. Thanks.

[@lovelifedrawing]

Glad it was helpful!

[@edbianchi8839]

Great post, plenty of info and clearly explained, thank youuuuu!!!!

[@lovelifedrawing]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ordinaryimages]

My pursuit is minimalist ink sketches. The first hour of my day is spent sketching with no awareness of time. A review of this past months 9x12 sketchbook suggest 6-8 minutes per with about half of it thinking.

[@sideshavelaura]

An excellent topic Kenzo, this is wonderful, and I love the interviews at the end. The insight that you become less precious with your work is so valuable. Since I'm working in story, I have so many reps for quick sketch, but my mind melts when I challenge myself to render a portrait or 1-2 hour illustration. Any tips for honing the ability to stay focused and (motivated?) to finish those long ones?

[@lovelifedrawing]

Hey Laura so nice to hear from you! Yes I also love quick sketch. Since you’re in the study group, I’d recommend checking out Lanes thumbnail exercise in workshop 2. Spend time just on the design. This is fun for your quick sketch mind because it’s still very simple. But then once you nail the design (which for me can take ages) then switch to rendering in the focal area using the 3 edge types from Charlie Pickard workshop. Let me know if this makes any sense! You could end up with a nicely designed image with rendering just in selected areas

[@maggie2556]

This is very interesting. I'm someone who has trouble being decisive at the start, but also never finishes anything-I sit mostly on 20-minute sketches. Now I'm in a drawing class that favors cleanness and accuracy, which compels me to spend 6+ hours on each drawing, which has been really good for me. But to fix my other problem, I shall have to ALSO do just the opposite, lots of really confined drawings.

[@Rayedrgn02]

Thanks Kenzo! This was very helpful. I need to work on my line confidence and try to break out of the chicken scratch which has been the most difficult thing for me to do because I am not sure whether I should erase or not. If I do not erase I end up making all the wrong marks and it doesn't really look like anything, like the lines look so off from the figure and if I do erase I get frustrated because I end up erasing too much. Maybe I should allow myself 20 lines and 5 erase chances. lol

[@lovelifedrawing]

Glad it was helpful Suzette!

[@abilmuchtarom632]

thanks man, your advice solves my current problem👍👍👍

[@davecooper86]

line quality or caligraphy are very awesome)

[@XD-rd8zd]

another nice vid!

[@alexiacerwinskipierce8114]

I feel I struggle most in the middle. That transitional stage between the structure and refining the details. I do well at the start, and i do well at the end. But someplace in the middle is where I tend to muck things up. I also have an issue with ditching drawings in its ugly phase instead of pushing theough and trusting the process.

[@lovelifedrawing]

I can relate!

[@uma-piba]

Thanks to the video!!