I think I found something!!!!

I learned so much today through these exercises.  Today was a good day.  The first few just didn't work out.

I started with 5minute gestures first.  Well, the 2 on the bottom worked but it was hard to get into the mindset.

So I went back to the 1 minute gesture drawings to get warmed up again.  #160 worked out well here.

Then I went back to the 5 minute gestures.  Still not so great. It's hard to get proportions correct while still trying to establish the force and gesture of the birds.

I took a break and came back later in the day.  I realized that every time I do this, I need to do 1minute gestures first, and then move on to the 5 minute.  This time, I decided to try something new!  A few weeks a go, my doctor told me that my right arm (my drawing arm) got tendinitis.  This was caused by me having to draw so much for college classes as well as fencing on the side.  It turns out that fencing and drawing uses the same exact muscles in the arm so therefore, those muscle became overused.  So I've been wearing a cast and that helps stop the consistent aching.  The only problem was that I could no longer draw.  Any activity that requires me to add pressure to the paper(which is most dry-media) will result in pain.  On the other hand, I found out that I can still paint, which is why all these studies are in acrylic.  Thanks to the bristles on the paintbrush there is practically no pressure/stress on my arm.

Besides that, while I was waiting for an appointment with the doctor, I decided to start training my left hand.  I guess I'll post some of those up here soon.  I was influence by artist such as Frank Frazetta who went through the same problem, tendinitis, at some point in his career and trained his left arm as well.

So what's the big deal?  Well, what if I drew in the proportions of my bird studies with my left hand before I paint them with my right hand.  I can't use a pencil with my right hand.  Otherwise, I would have just done it with my right hand.  Here they are!  I was able to draw the proportion lines and paint the gestures within the 1 minute time limit as well-I didn't think it was going to be that easy at first.

 After my 1 minute gestures, I moved on to the 5 minute one immediately.  I still have a lot to work on but this makes things a lot easier.

 And this is my favorite page so far.