More drawing practice

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A few months ago, I got this idea in my head that I should aim to exercise for 30 minutes a day, and do some type of art for an hour a day. I've found that the days go a lot better when both of these things get done, but it's so hard to find the time. I feel like it shouldn't be, but it really, really, really is. It seems if I make time for one, the other gets neglected, and the past few days, well, neither one has happened much.

Thankfully, I did find some time on Sunday night to take another shot at this Sargent sketch. I'm finding this one to be really difficult--maybe because it's all line, and I can't lay in some big masses to see if they're correct. It's really helpful to be able to visualize those large areas. 

The last time I tried this one, I definitely made the width of the head (from the back to the tip of the nose) too narrow. And this time, I think I overcompensated and made it too wide (not that you can tell very well from the angle of this photo). So I don't know. Maybe third time's a charm? I do love a good challenge, but sometimes you just get sick of doing the same thing. I do think working the same size helped (and it also might help to plan to spend more that an hour working on it ;). I guess I have a hard time really seeing if it looks correct until I start darkening the lines a bit, and then it's too late to correct--maybe I need to adjust my approach.

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