The most common question I’m asked about my work is how long did it take? There are plenty of more interesting (to me) questions that could be asked, such as why did you choose this subject? or what inspired you? or why did you draw it like this? or can I buy it please? But I’m never asked any of those things.
And the answer is, well, it depends, but for a smaller picture the actual drawing (as in, the doing of it, putting pencil to paper) takes around fifteen hours and for a larger one twenty to thirty hours. Sometimes it’s less, sometimes it’s more.
I think I’m asked this because we tend to place value on hard work. I do too. But there’s no direct correlation between hard work and good results, especially not in art. There’s not always even a connection between hard work and hours worked. A lot of the art I admire was actually produced fairly quickly, but using years of experience, practice and learning.
This is the picture I’m working on at the moment. Before you ask, this is about fifteen hours’ work so far. I’m drawing it as a gift for my parents, the boys in the picture are my nephews. As you can see, they’re all looking into the sun, which isn’t ideal, but this photo was taken on a family holiday and it has a special value because of that. It makes the picture a little different and interesting though, and suggests there might be some kind of story there. I like the lines on the wall behind them (which I’ve not drawn in yet) because they remind me of the poster for the Usual Suspects film.
This picture was started ages ago, put to one side so I could work on a commission, picked up again, then put to another side so I could work on the picture of my nephews. There’s over thirty hours of drawing there so far. When I eventually finish, this will by far beat my record for time spent on a drawing. Most of the time has gone on drawing the water, which isn’t the most interesting part of the drawing but is an essential part of the story. This picture will probably be called Memento because it shows my wife taking a photo but is in itself also a memento of a great holiday. My hope is that anyone looking at the finished drawing will be reminded of a similar time, of taking a photo to remind themselves of a special moment.