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Awesome! I hope to post a first batch tomorrow. :) Can't wait to see some of yours!

I think people get caught up in needing to produce a "sketch" in each window of time, and to many a "sketch" is actually a semi-complete picture (although perhaps without color).

Almost no one can actually get a "complete" drawing done in 30 seconds. That's actually sort of the point -- by giving you such a short window of time, you are forced to make some incredibly strict decisions about priorities. It demands that you prevent yourself from getting sucked into the "interesting" or "fun" details that leap out at you when you look at an image and instead absorb and capture the direction and energy of the complete figure as quickly as possible.

If all you get in your 30 seconds is a single line that defines the flow of the energy/the weight of the pose, that is okay. That is a success. If you get a few "bubbles" down that define where the hips and torso are in relation to one another, that is also a success.

You do not need to have something that is recognizable to another person at the end of those 30 seconds. You DO need to try and make a clear decision about what you see in that pose AS A WHOLE, and make one or more marks on your paper that record that decision. These are not drawings you're going to put on the wall, these are exercises in perception that you do to "warm up" and put yourself in the right state of mind before you attempt those longer poses.

There is no mistake more common in newbie artists than to get stuck in the "details" trap, to leap immediately to what is "fun" or "interesting" or what they think will make them "better" in the eyes of others, diving into shading or spending minutes or hours painstakingly rendering a particularly pretty set of eyes or hands only to discover an hour later that that beautiful detail is out of proportion with the rest of the body, or at a bizarre angle that disrupts the flow of the pose, etc. etc. It takes a more seasoned eye to be able to resist working in detail and instead start with much more generality.

The 30 second warmups, and 1 second warmups, before the class mode takes you on to longer poses (where you are more likely to come up with more recognizable sketches), are there to try and make you approach those longer poses with the same eye for seeing the whole, for putting details in the context of a larger line and flow.

My advice if you are worried that your 30 second drawings don't look like anything: Stop worrying. Start putting a single line down that captures the direction of the spine. If you have time, bubble in the placement/angle of the hips, ribcage and head. If you have more time, add some lines for arms and legs. Don't have time? No problem. You're learning more than you realize.

Hi IronJeremy!

I'm not sure what kind of unwritten rules you are concerned about. The only ones I can think are that if you are asking for critique, make sure you aren't defensive; receive the advice you get as a gift rather than an attack.

Here is an article we have about getting the most benefit from critique: https://line-of-action.com/benefiting-from-critique/

Here's another about giving useful critique: https://line-of-action.com/giving-good-critique/

Do these help at all? :)

Start with 30 second gestures as a warmup. Practice anatomy with longer poses (5+ minutes). :)

Great to hear! :) I really encourage you to try them, they're so simple, you can do them on a bus or train or in the back of a lecture, all you need is a piece of paper and a pencil.

I think the use of "skeletons" is extremely common, and largely recommended for artists of all skill levels.

By "noisy", do you just mean that you find you have too many line and start to get confused? It sounds like you may be drawing the initial skeleton too dark. Have you ever done practice exercises for controlling the darkness you are laying down with your pencil? You may find that this will help you to start feather-light, so that your later lines are easier to lay on top of the skeleton without creating a visual cacophony. Plus, they're really relaxing.

Gradient exercises are simple to do. Basically, draw 5 boxes, about 1 inch by inch, on a piece of paper. Fill in the boxes from the darkest your pencil can possibly create, to the lightest it can possibly create. It should take 5 minutes tops. Then go on to do your normal drawing practice.

The next day, draw 6 1x1 boxes, and fill them in from the darkest to the lightest. The following day, draw 7 boxes. The idea is to get ever finer control over the pressure that you put on your pencil, until you can create 20 or more distinct shades of grey with a single pencil.

About never quite putting them in the anatomically correct place -- this is just practice, and the fact that you are able to look at your drawing and say, this is not quite right, shows progress! Mentally review each of your drawings to see where you went wrong, and just make a mental note of it for the future.

The other thing about working really light, starting with your skeleton, bubbling in major regions, and then going back and doing your sketch on top of it all, is that you aren't really expected to get each layer 100% right from the get-go. The skeleton layer is your best guess, the spheres layer is your next best guess (and can deviate slightly from the skeleton), and the actual lines are your final guess, and again, can deviate from what's underneath. Each layer improves upon the last.

This being the case, having super-fine control over how hard you are pressing so that your preparatory layers do not interfere too much with the "final" sketch is of the utmost importance.

Hope this helps! Sorry if I misunderstood the question. :)

Now that we have the new expression practice tool available, I'm going to try and re-start my quest to do 100 drawings of faces, each with a minimum of 5 minutes spent on it.

With the craziness of my schedule, I'm probably looking at 1 to 3 faces per day.

Is anyone else interested in getting on board the 100 face challenge with me? :)

With my schedule I think my friends bend over backwards to avoid adding stuff to my to-do list. So I think I will just have some very surprised friends! ;)

I sort of burned out on my 100... I've been thinking that perhaps if I did a 100 of all fun images, like gift art for my friends of their D&D characters, with the goal being to loosen up, take risks, and feel confident just drawing, I might be able to rekindle my 100 fire!

The lines look much more decisive to me, und3c1ph3r3d!

Admin to the rescue! duplicates deleted. :)

I'm glad you got the image tag working, those are very cool. I really need to get back on the stick again. I just did a digital painting for a friend recently and it was much harder than it was before.

Whoooa! I love what you did to that windom! I'm such a sci-fi junkie.

Check this for how to post images, it's pretty easy: https://line-of-action.com/faq/#forumimages

Go go go! :D Please do share some of your results?

Good GRACIOUS! Eight days? I am certain we are all very impressed! I know I am.

I think those topics are indeed a bit broad. I would pick just one for your next 100, and possible even drill down further -- "Light And Materials" could turn into "Shadows on fabric" or "highlights on glass" as a focus for 100, for example.

Those sound like wonderful goals, Lokken! :)