Drawing Tutorials

My Results: 40-Minute Complex Scene Drawing Challenge

I put myself through the same 40-minute timed assignment I give students - eight scenes, five minutes each, same rules, same pressure. If I'm going to ask students to work under time constraints, I should be able to demonstrate it myself. Here's what happened...

Robert Joyner | Garage Studio Artist & Art Educator

30 Sep 2025 — 3 min read

I put myself through the same 40-minute complex scene drawing challenge I give students - eight street scenes, five minutes each. Same rules, same pressure, same timer notification at 10 seconds. Here's what happened...

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Watch video: hit play and see how I handled the complex scene drawing assignment.

The Setup

I'm working through the exact same images you get in the challenge. No warm-up, no practice run, just hit record and go. If I'm going to ask students to do this under time pressure, I should be able to demonstrate it myself.

What I Focused On

Every scene starts the same way: find the horizon line, figure out where the photographer was standing (the bullseye point), and establish the big perspective framework before touching any details.

Scene 1 - Vertical with angled horizon: The corner of the building anchors everything. That angle coming down tells me where the vanishing point sits. Get that relationship right, the rest follows.

Scene 3 - Cropped composition: This one shows a photographer standing off-center. Everything runs to a point that's not in the middle of the frame. Classic example of working with edited images - you have to find that offset vanishing point or the whole scene falls apart.

Scene 6 - Elevated viewpoint: Looking down on cars from above changes everything. We can see the tops of vehicles, which means the horizon line sits way up. Different side of the centerline = different side of the car visible.

The Details Problem

I keep catching myself wanting to add windows, refine curves, get the car proportions perfect. But the 10-second warning hits and I'm reminded: big idea first, details if there's time.

Scene 4, I spent too long on one car and barely got the buildings sketched. Scene 7, I focused on the grand architecture and ran out of time for secondary elements. That's the trade-off when you're working fast.

What Actually Matters

Look at Scene 8 - I got the basic box of the car, the perspective angles on the buildings, and the spatial relationships down. It's rough. It's unfinished. But the perspective reads correctly. That's what I'm after in these exercises.

The goal isn't eight polished drawings. It's training yourself to see the structural framework quickly and commit to it before details distract you.

Things I'd Do Differently

Scene 2, I should have exaggerated that building angle more. It's reading a bit flat. Scene 5, my car proportions are slightly off - I made it too long, looks like a pickup truck instead of a sedan.

These are the corrections you make when working from observation under time constraints. You commit, you assess, you adjust in the next drawing.

The Takeaway

Five minutes per scene isn't much time. You're forced to prioritize. Perspective and scale relationships have to come first because without them, no amount of detail work saves the drawing.

If you can get the big structural idea down in these exercises, everything else becomes refinement. That's the skill that transfers to real artwork where you're not working against a timer but you still need to make confident decisions about spatial relationships.

Want to try it yourself? The full 40-minute challenge is waiting.

Watch Me Work Through It

This post breaks down my approach to the same challenge you can try. If you haven't done the assignment yet:

Take the Challenge First: 40-Minute Complex Scene Drawing Challenge - Try the eight timed scenes yourself before seeing my results. It's more valuable to struggle through it first, then see how someone else approaches the same problems.

Foundation Concepts I'm Using: