This was 35 minutes. It’s unusual we get something so long at these classes. For me nothing is really interesting until it’s at least 20 minutes!

Thank you!

Thank you! Yes, always, but I’m working on leaning less on pencil, especially for detail work, and going directly to ink.

It’s very different from the technical pen I’m used to. Easier to make mistakes, harder to control, prone to big blobs of ink going everywhere, and the ink I use dries much more slowly which is a serious hand-smudging hazard.

That all said, I love that you can get different line qualities with the same tool. It makes what you’re drawing much more expressive.

And there’s also something appealing about the fact that a pen nib will never change or be out of stock or upgraded or updated. It’s just a metal stick with a slot cut in it. It’s cheap, and apart from slow changes in ink technology, essentially eternal.

Thank you! Comments like this are what keep them coming.

I’d offer this. If you’re given ten minutes, don’t work towards having a finished piece in ten minutes. You’ll mistime it, and focus on one detail, and end up with something only half done.

Instead, have something finished in one minute. Even if it’s just a rough pencil layout of the shape of the body: if the clock stops after one minute, you have something finished. Then if you have another minute, refine what you’ve drawn: correct the angle of an arm, make that straight line into a curve. And then you’re finished again. And then refine further, add some shading, and regime further, get those muscles better defined, and so on. And at all points, you could stop working and end up with something you’re happy with.

At least that’s how I do it!

These are brilliant! I try to go life drawing once a week and it’s my favourite part of the week. I love how studious it feels, everyone so focused on the task at hand.

Close, one down from that: third stage.

Ten points!

This is the answer that matters.

Spaaaaaaaace!

Correct, and thank you!

Bingo! As seen in Houston, TX.

Thank you! This was such a fun one to draw!

It means to pointlessly take something to a place that already has it in abundance.

As someone who’s spent a lot of time working in a lab, the ability to control static electricity would be a godsend! There’s really nothing like spending weeks preparing a new material as a fine powder, carrying it over to the weighing scales, placing a glass sample vial onto the scales, taring it, then a scooping up some of your powder with a spatula, careful not to lose a single particle, then carefully, CAREFULLY carrying the scoop of power to the sample vial – then seeing the static blast your powder out of the spatula to coat the OUTSIDE of the sample vial, plus the scales, plus your nitrile glove…

I have trauma.