yo! i was just interested on how long it would roughly take anyone to sketch something like a gesture,pose,face etc.
because i think one of my major faults is trying to draw too fast,but i don’t want to be too slow either,so how long wud u guys say u spend on a simple sketch?
i know speed is someting that comes with knowledge,but at least i cud get an average time span worked out…
Depends on what you mean by simple.
Here is how I do illustrations but im sure others do things differently:
motion/gesture lines: 5-10 seconds
volume lines: 15 - 30 seconds
basic outlines: 15 - 30 seconds
basic fabric/design/clothing/hair/texture: 30seconds - 2mins
Defined outlines: 1min - 15mins
Shading/color: varies
all in all disregarding shading and color(which easily take the longest) a simple sketch can take anywhere from 2mins - 20minutes depending on how complex the design is.
However, if you feel your sketching is somewhat lacking in quality, you might try taking longer amounts of time to complete the overall composition of the image, or you might practice on the anatomy or gestures of your sketches, pertaining to whatever feature you are having trouble with. 
with pencil and paper… it takes me like 8 hours:D
but thats because im never satisfied with leaving a drawing just scribbly lines, i like to get clean lines with nice shading. but you could probably call my sketches “drawings” more.
Hiyu Noob 
Umm, gesture from a live reference, around 2 minutes. For a full face/figure, 25 minutes. I think I’m still slow though. In the lifedrawing classes, they gave us about 2-3 minutes for gesture, 10min for studies and 20 for a full drawing with shading, but obviously it’s quicker to draw naked people than ones with clothes on.
I don’t think if you’re talking about drawing straight from your head that you should worry but, it’s always more difficult…plus you might be stylising it so it’d take longer, or what. Yeh.
Hiyu Noob
Umm, gesture from a live reference, around 2 minutes. For a full face/figure, 25 minutes. I think I’m still slow though. In the lifedrawing classes, they gave us about 2-3 minutes for gesture, 10min for studies and 20 for a full drawing with shading, but obviously it’s quicker to draw naked people than ones with clothes on.
I don’t think if you’re talking about drawing straight from your head that you should worry but, it’s always more difficult…plus you might be stylising it so it’d take longer, or what. Yeh.
OMG your soooo lucky!!! 
I took four entirely different life drawing courses, and they all had strict time constraints.
They only ever gave us 15-30 seconds for gesture, and 1 minute at most for volume. Basic outline the max they gave was 5 minutes I think, and 1hour(though usually 30mins) was the longest they ever gave for completeing everything(that includes shading). This was on giant 18x24 sheets too!..I envy such loose time constraints…I suppose the constraints help a person learn quicker…however it wouldve been nice to know that they actually gave ample time once in a while to make a truly superb piece.
Why worry about time? Time isn’t that important for a sketch. What’s important is wether or not you find the ideas you want in a sketch, to move on to the final piece. If it takes you eight hours to get a sketch done, then that’s fine. What matters most is if you find your idea. Sketches are just ideas on paper, nothing more. No need to refine a sketch at all, IMO.
What I usually do is do many, many thumbnails before I even do a sketch. Then I play with the sketch until I like the idea, then on to the final product. Although most of my sketches have been for 3D models, the same principle’s applied to my illustration work too.
Forget about the time. Focus on getting the idea from your head, onto the paper.
hmmm lets see…
[ul]
[li]deadlines[/li][li]to avoid getting bored[/li][li]to test your limits[/li][/ul]i understand what your saying,but in buisness terms speed is quite important,especially if u want to pursue i career in something like animation 2d
While those are great reasons to “worry” about time, that’s putting the cart before the horse. One thing I always hated about my life drawing classes, especially when I first started out, is we only had about 2-5 minutes to draw a pose. While this is fine for gestural work, it taught me nothing about anatomy. I had to go learn that on my own, even though I had the best reference sitting right in front of me, I never got to utilize it, because of the time restraints the teacher put on us.
That’s why I am not a big fan of speed challenges for those starting out. Time is quite important for the professional, so in the work environment you need to worry about, deadlines, etc… If you don’t know how long you need to sketch tells me this person isn’t ready for that type of work yet.
Speed doesn’t mean anything if you can’t produce quality work. Quality work comes from practice, which leads to faster working time. You can’t start out being fast and have quality work. It’s like putting the cart before the horse.
So like I said before, why worry about time? And to be quite honest, I never worry about time. By experience I know what I can do, and when I can do it. This fellow doesn’t know how long to take, so I am saying for him to practice, and learn on his own. Telling him 25 minutes, or 5 minutes doesn’t really help him out. Having him pick up his pencil and see for himself is the only way for him to “truly” know how long it’s going to take him.
My opinion of course.
well even it if it IS putting the cart before the horse,i still answered your question didn’t i?
lol
i guess i’m not worried about being fast,i’m worried about being tooooooo slooooooow.
Only remedy for building up speed is becoming more familiar with what you want to do. Or in other words, practice! 
I’m not trying to say that striving to be faster is wrong. As it’s a good habit to follow. However, being faster doesn’t mean squat if you’re not getting what you need out of your sketches. The idea is paramount in this situation. Not the speed.
Remember it is better to gesture fast any where from 10 seconds to a few minutes so you can get the whole idea. after you have the idea gestured out then refine refine refine until you work is … you guessed it refined.
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