I sketched the two figures at the Wednesday figure drawing session, and then later added the background.

I did these during the warm-up and had several two- minute gouache sketches of the same model on the same dark surface. These two figures stood out as special because the way they overlapped suggested a connection between them. And they both seemed to show a bit of anxiety that I could build on in a more polished painting.

The model was barefoot, and when I was looking for a setting that made sense, I remembered some sketches I had done of beach volleyball, which I used as a reference. Because of the tension in their poses, I titled this “Game Point!”