some '09 sketches

One of my professors emphasized that there's a vitality and life in quick sketches that you don't find in finished art. Based on that, he always cautioned against working too hard on a piece. He observed that, very often the best work of the old masters was not their well-known paintings, but sketches they made as preliminary studies for those paintings. 'Labor' can stifle freshness and spontaneity. Oriental brush work is a good example of the vitality and life of quick 'sketching'.