I had high hopes this morning, but toddlers like to take your hopes for a day and dash them on the stony shores of tantrums! LoL

In an effort to get my morning routine under control I’ve been waking up earlier and earlier, but my kids think it’s a race, so they have, too. And I’m incredibly quiet in the mornings, so I don’t know what’s making them wake up early.

That being said — I was behind on my studies and writing this morning, so my art time was cut a tiny bit short in the AM. I had a business meeting to get to fairly early with a person who has been trying to connect for a few days now, so I made that a priority today.

I started with my warmup page, as usual. I’m pretty happy with this one. I have noticed that I used to do a much better job at this page traditionally than I ever have digitally. I just need more practice with my tablet, I suppose.

And I tried something a little bit different with my gestures today. I did the normal 30-second gestures, then a few 2-minute gestures, followed by a longer 5-minute pose.

I like the rhythm that creates, so I think that’ll be a more regular exercise.

At work, I did a simple deer and turkey track tattoo.

Then worked on tightening up this pose and diving into some rendering.

What went well?

• Gesture drawing — with a buildup.
• A quick tattoo at work.
• Getting to spend extra time refining a drawing.

What needs work?

• Focusing on accuracy with longer poses.
• Energy — again.

What did I learn?

My barbell is slowly but surely being developed. If I keep moving in this direction…I’ll have SO much less pressure to produce art. It’s a promising vision of the future.