Why Draw from Life? (Part Two)

I believe drawing from life with sincere observation (not a mechanical, unmindful or borrowed procedure or set of expectations) will inevitably reveal a visual reflection of your distinct identity, or what is vaguely termed your "personal vision". It may take time to work through the difficulties of drawing on the spot under the pressure of time, and escape mannerisms you may have absorbed from the study of other artists, but the rewards of perseverance are worth the trouble.
It's true that not every artist is interested in making artwork that attempts to convey a realistic appearance--an abstract expressionist may find life drawing an inhibition, but many other non-literal forms of realistic image-making are deepened by accumulating a storehouse of natural-world observation drawing and painting experience. Constant recording of the reality around you trains your mind and hand to quickly discern the essence of your attraction to a subject, which filters down into your subconscious and creates a rich source of information that will help you invent convincing characters and scenes from imagination.
Here are a few recent quick sketches I made during a trip to Disneyland, in celebration of our daughter's 13th birthday. Occasionally I would pass on a ride, find a comfortable spot and relax by drawing for a few minutes, in a 5" x 7" sketchbook.

Drawn across two pages, from a shady spot near the
Indiana Jones Adventure ride. People were streaming
past constantly so I had to choose paused figures to
include and scrawl them down fast.

I sat out an early morning raft ride and drew this imposing
giant cartoon grizzly bear figure. I intended to include people
for scale but it was too early for much traffic, I guess. The wall
behind the bear in the lower left of the frame is around five or
six feet high. It's a BIG bear!

These two fellows are part of the decorations across
the walkway from the Enchanted Tiki Room.

This large bird was on the shore of a pond at the base
of the Thunder Mountain Railroad.

This is a quick sketch of my tired daughter Katy
as we waited for the shuttle to run us back to our
hotel for a short late afternoon nap, to strengthen us
for adventures in Disneyland After Dark.

I've done countless thousands of quick sketches like those above, which enables me to invent characters and scenes such as these;

Without a large store of observed natural information to call upon
I could never have satisfied my ambitions here--most of the
personality-revealing elements of the drawings are direct
caricatures or distilled, carefully composed exaggerations of
gestures and expressions I've logged away in memory.

So I encourage anyone interested in creating believable personalities in their fantasy artwork to do as much observation drawing from life as possible. It's not only valuable, it's great fun--and making the practice a habit will develop an addiction you won't regret!