Five minute poses are good for extra-speedy representations of a life model’s gesture or expression. Ten minute poses give you a bit more time to focus on partial detail, like honing down the line articulation and adding some shadow shapes.
As with the five minute poses, half a figure is really enough to deal with. The gesture can be captured, then basic construction and articulation of the lines. It is a good idea to leave between two and five minutes at the end of the pose for constructing quick and functional shadow shapes. They help tremendously in giving the image more depth.
Quick poses tend to focus one’s attention on the upper body of a model. It is worth considering the bottom half too – as all these short sketches are essential practice for the larger and more refined two to five-week poses described in much detail in these articles on Academic Figure Drawing.
