It's been a couple of years since sharing a peek inside a completed sketchbook.

This one was very targeted in a couple of ways on my part:

1. Get back to pencil-and-paper after a deep dive into fully digital
2. Lean into figure drawing

I spent a great deal of time with Mike Mattesi's Drawing Force book and web course. I have more to do and learn, but several things started to click during these past few months of focused study!

I pass on the course and books to you with high recommendation. When I first took a stab at the books and the course, I was convinced it was too advanced to be a beginners course. But now I recognize something in the approach that I had done as a teacher myself: planting the seeds for appeal and gesture early (in the case of music: tone and phrasing). It could be saved for later, after the fundamentals are thoroughly set. But why wait? Let compound interest work it's magic.

The style of the Force method is very fluid and alive. It takes wrangling, but it's much more engaging than the more measurement-based approach of pure observational drawing. Like getting at the heart of a piece of music rather than reading notes on the page alone.

Though, I probably spent more time being sure I was seeing the model and staying true to their form. Quite the tricky balance: pushing gesture while capturing essence. I suppose it's not a matter of either/or.

Something that's hard to express through the images alone — it was supremely fun to do! The immediacy, the focus on the energy around expressing the gesture of a pose, and the embodied experience of carving out those rhythms from the figure.

There's simply something to having a sketch on paper sitting on a desk as well. Unmistakably there, holdable in your hands, textured from the material and etchings of the pencil. Am I too romantic about it?

My favorite benefit from spending ample time in a cheap stack of newsprint is how disposable and unprecious it is. Bad drawing? Next page. No Ctrl-Z or glowing screen that urges for polish and perfection. I do love doing digital work. And still, it's nice to take a breather and really let loose on the page.

I still catch myself being surprised that the real skill of art is being able to see. The answer is in plain sight. The muscle that develops is the patience to see more and the pattern matching to capture ideas more quickly.

Onward, to deeper seeing!