What was it?
Ellen Million and some other fantasy artists started Sketch Fests for fantasy artists earlier this year. In short, artists all over the world get together at the same time and have one hour maximum to work on each sketch. Sketches are based on "prompts", ideas or titles in any form, submitted by other artists, or anyone else who wants to provide them.
Ellen's Livejournal Community where you can look at past events, and, hopefully, see info. for future ones: http://community.livejournal.com/emglivejournal
The June one, was the 3rd one and the first I participated in and, IIRC, the first that went a full 24 hours so all time zones had equal participation.
Here is that specific one: http://community.livejournal.com/emglivejournal/4323.html?thread=1#t391395
It is a bit confusing to follow once it gets started. If you want to just see most of the sketches artists completed and posted from the event, they are all here: http://hotlink.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestwall.php
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My Goals
I was supposed to write these out ahead of time, but I didn't get a chance. I didn't know if I'd be up to participating, but I did have these goals in mind.
1) To just get started sketching. I've been only doing a very little this year so far even though I really want to work harder at my art skills.
2) To see if I could be inspired by prompts from other people.
3) To see if I could work productively in 20 min blocks, paying attention to a timer, so I didn't stress out my neck, arms and hands so much.
4) To see if the new desk set up in my office is good for sketching/painting like I hoped it would be.
5) To complete at least one sketch that I wouldn't be embarrassed to put up on a group like this.
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Self-Assessment
All goals met! Yay! :)
I found that breaking the hour into 20min blocks worked well for me. The first 20min was about the right amount of time for me compose something and get the main outlines/spacing down. Then I could take a good rest before continuing. I did not take much of a break between the last 2 blocks of time. By then I was more into it and didn't want to be interrupted so much. But I did at least stop and stretch for a few min. It was successful in creating less stress for my body. :)
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What did I do?
I finished 2 sketches!
Prompt: Horse-Spider Hybrid
I decided to go with a more horse, than spider version and avoid the obvious (in my mind) eight spider legs that I thought others might do. It didn't work out quite as well as I hoped, but I'm pretty happy with it overall since I haven't done "hybrid" type things or much making up anatomy in general. If I were to do it again, I would definitely make some changes.
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Prompt: Heart of a Lion
Lion reference used.
I had 3 very different interpretations for this - two cute, one gory. I went with the one that I could find a reference photo for the quickest.
(I did not include reference photo searches in my 1 hour time limit. I'm not sure if I was supposed to or not, but with my Internet connection it wouldn't work. It can take me quite a while just to get a couple pages loaded to see them. But I still went with the spirit of "be quick" and didn't spend a lot of page views on looking for that "perfect" reference.)
I may work on this one more for a finished piece - and maybe the other interpretations too. I like cats of all sizes. :)
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Future Goals
I hope to continue participating in more Sketch Fests.
1) To improve my sketching and art skills in general.
2) To create more things that I'll like enough to take to a finished work.
3) To create work that others like enough that I'll feel comfortable asking for sponsors or donations to finish pieces for others, and/or that I can put up for sale on DA, Zazzle etc.. (after finishing the work later, if needed)
I'll post anything on my Facebook Fanpage as I complete it. :)
