Timed Sketch Videos (A free 7-day course)
Timed Sketch Videos are the best tool for rapidly improving your sketching and drawing skills. There are seven of them here. Work through one a day and improve your skills dramatically!
- In order to sketch and draw anything well, one must learn to see the shapes, contours, lines and values in the subject, and how they relate to one another positionally.
- Timed Sketching forces one to see this way quickly.
- Expect your 1-minute sketches to be very rough. That’s okay! Don’t be critical of yourself. You’re learning!
- The 2-minute sketches will be a bit better. Likewise for the 3 and 4 minute sketches as you can observe more carefully and be a bit more accurate with your line placements and shape locations.
- In the 10-minute sketch, you should still sketch quickly, but with more care and decisiveness in your observations and line making.
That’s the way the videos work. Quick and sloppy leads to quick and a little more careful, which leads to considerably more careful and decisive. Your brain remembers all this and adjusts your hand/eye coordination more and more with each 50-minute session. It also learns to be quick and decisive!
| Friend, If you commit to working through each video over the next 5-7 days, you will be astonished at how quickly you can sketch anything compared to your first attempt! It just works! And it’s great fun! You’re going to become really good at sketching and drawing. |
What You Need…
- I suggest you sketch on a large, inexpensive newsprint sketch pad at least 11”x14” so you can keep moving from sketch to sketch without pausing the video. They are acid free these days and cheap. Your sketches will last and not yellow. SAVE YOUR SKETCHES!
- Sharpen up half a dozen good pencils so you won’t have to constantly stop to sharpen. Keep the sharpener handy though.😉 Standard yellow school pencils, “No.2”, will work or you can buy some “B” hardness artists pencils for a bit darker line and greater range of darks and lights. Don’t buy a set of different hardness pencils. Not necessary!
- Hold your pencil about halfway up from the point, ease your pressure for light lines and sketch with gestural, sketchy lines. Imprecision is to be expected. Simply restate a line if you want to refine a shape. Darken up lines you’re happy with. All those sketchy “mistakes” end up becoming an attractive part of the whole. Trust yourself!
- Email Your Video Sketches to me. I would love to see them!
You can’t do sketches enough. Sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh.
-John Singer Sargent
Thank you Don,
This is a wonderful exercice, i enjoyed every minute of it and clearly my last drawings were much better than the first one. I will definitely follow our posts and recommendations. Best wishes. Thierry
Thanks so much for commenting Thierry and I’m happy that you enjoyed the video. I am working on more of them and will notify when they are posted.
If you get a chance, DM me on Instagram and attach your sketches. I would love to see them!
Don, I began my first 50min exercise today!! Thank you so much I enjoyed this so very much! This is so very helpful and generous and its supporting me in this new regime to stick daily with it! I will begin the second next 50min treat tomorrow and making a commitment to myself to continue daily with this. I owe it to myself, and gladly do so! Thankyou!! It is helping set the pace for the day!
That’s great Roisin! Makes me happy to hear this🙂. I’m posting another one within the hour called Ducks! The goal is seven of them for a seven day course in timed sketching. All free of course!
Stick with it and post your progress on Instagram. I would love to see the sketches!
I’m on my day 4! The Wiener Dogs! Love dogs and this one and the coffee theme so far is my favourites! This is an achievement for me to keep up a commitment consecutively for myself, and at something I know is valuable to me. Its good to find something that pins me to my drawing desk! Thankyou Don, a cup of coffee for now to begin the week for you coming up! I wish I could give more, and trust in time I will. For it is truly deserved. The efforts are tremendous and not forgotten!
Thanks so much for the coffee Roisin! Much appreciated and it will get used Monday morning for sure👍. Day four already, wow! Good for you👍👏. I saw the sketches on your reel and they look great! I’m glad the videos are inspiring you.
I tried to create a variety of subjects knowing that it’s a challenge at times to draw or sketch something one isn’t particularly interested in. This is yet another benefit of the video course. After completing all of them, you’ll be less prone to judge the worthiness of a potential subject. All subjects will begin to have potential for a sketch and you will begin to observe far more in the world than you once did. You will begin to find beauty and something interesting in practically everything. This in turn gives you the freedom to explore more and learn more about the world outside your own back door🙂. It’s a beautiful thing! I wish I had taken up a habit of sketching and drawing when I was in my twenties but I was too caught up in other concerns with career strategy, finances and other illusions. A waste of valuable time really. But hey, we learn from our history what truly matters in this life. I learned each day is a gift👍😉🙏.
Thank you for creating these exercises. I know sketching is something I need to do more often. I love painting but realize that putting more effort into my drawing skills is going to help my paintings in the long run. I also think this is helpful because one of my goals for this year is to work on painting more from life rather than photographs. I need to incorporate sketching into my daily practice. I did recently pick up a tiny sketchbook that fits in my purse so if I have a few minutes no matter where I am, I will be prepared to do some quick studies. Thank you for the inspiration!
You are most welcome Catherine! Thanks for commenting and I’m glad the videos are working for you. Keep up the good work!