Another Figure

I had a chance to do some more figure sketches last night. Here is one of them. Even though it's only a study, I try to accomplish a number of things. One element I failed at was composition. I've been attempting to fill the page with the entire figure and in this one I ran out of paper on the left. There is one good point to be made however and that is, as soon as I knew that the figure would not fit I did NOT try to conform the figure to the given space. By this I mean, it is easy for one to adjust proportions to accommodate for the space given. I fall victim to this sometimes and this time I made a conscious effort to not do so. I'm pleased with my effort for not fussing around with the face and it matches my efforts with the rest of the form as I laid down minimal squiggles to capture the likeness of my model. On future efforts I would like to lay down fewer strokes to capture outline instead of multiple sketchy passes. Calligraphic confident single strokes would better indicate that I am able to capture the figure as I see it without going back to rework...almost in an effortless attempt. John Singer Sargent went to great lengths to make his art appear effortless and spontaneous as though every mark was intentional and necessary to capture his vision without appearing overworked. Some of this and probably most of this comes through practice but other times when efforts failed to his eyes, he started over.