Every week, I have a friend who sweet-talks people into posing for a group of artists over our lunch hour. They sit for two half-hour poses. These are sketches of those kind souls. They know art is essential.

 When I first began this process of doing “Half-hour sketches”, I was terrible at it. My goal previous to this time had been to “get as much detail as possible”. That’s untenable in a half-hour sketch.

It took me months to learn how to capture the essentials. Hell, I’m still learning how to do it.

Compare the first drawing in this sketchbook with the last one, and you’ll see what I mean.

 I began approaching my sketches with a little more compositional improvisation a few weeks down the line. I was getting bored with simply centering the subject.

In the beginning, I was terribly heavy-handed. It took me many weeks before I began using a lighter touch.

 Glasses are challenging. Their symmetry, the way the lenses distort the face, the way they draw the eye of the viewer away from all the other lovely details of the face. They are a pain in my ass.

I hate drawing them, but I couldn’t draw without mine. The irony is not lost on me.

 I am not an especially good portrait artist. The nuances necessary to capture a likeness remain frustratingly elusive for me. Every once in while, though, I’ll get it. This was one of those times.

I avoided those damned glasses completely on this one. I win.

 Sadly, I distorted this poor girl’s head, but I still liked the drawing enough to not erase it.

Sometimes it’s healthy to live with your mistakes.

 This is just a ham-fisted mess. I was experimenting with a new kind of pencil, which was way too dark.

 This was the first time I felt like I had done a good job. I love the composition and feeling in this one.

 I got to the sketch session late on this one, so I only had 15 minutes. I love how it turned out, though.

 The model kept shifting on this portrait, so I went all Duchamp “Descending Stairs” on this one.

 I love this one. It was the first time I managed to capture both likeness and the emotional resonance of the model.

 After a year of practice, I felt like I was much better at the whole portrait thing. Still not great. But getting better all the time.

Practice, not talent, is what defines the artist.