The New Year has begun and so have weekly sessions of life drawing. Drawing a live model is one of the most energizing ways to invigorate a drawing practice.

Yes, I'm primarily a painter, but drawing forms the bones of most of my paintings. Drawing live models ensures I maintain fast eye-hand coordination.

Each class begins with ten two-minute poses. These warm-up exercises loosen up the hands and eyes, and train us to get the basic form drawn quickly.

Once we've gone through those poses (and taken a ten minute coffee/tea break) we draw ten-minute poses. The sketch shown here is from a ten-minute pose. The model, seen on the left side of the photo, is resting between poses.

Often my best drawings are done quickly, before I've gotten too involved with the outcome or concerned with how well I'm doing. Maybe the Ten-Minute Revolution is more pervasive than I'd thought. We really can get a lot done ten minutes at a time.