It rarely works out well to skip over basic steps like making a preliminary sketch, but I am mostly too eager to paint to be disciplined. Yesterday, though, I did start Tuesday’s Zoom figure session with a 20- minute warmup. Right away I knew I wanted to focus on the model’s posture and his facial expression. He seemed confident, proud, and a little hurt. I did not capture these nuances in this first attempt, but I was able to learn from this sketch and make the following 60-minute gouache painting.

I caught his posture, his slimness, and his lovely round head better for having done the first sketch, although his facial expression was still not right. But, there was one more 20- minute pose for the evening, so I still had a chance. I decided to paint directly without drawing and to use a large one and a half-inch flat brush. After the paint dried I added marks with a pen and pastel pencils.

I finally got his eyes and expression right in this sketch. This is my favorite from the evening because it shows what I noticed first off about him. Also, I like the marks the flat brush makes.