I had the pleasure of attending the Schoolism Nathan Fowkes workshop in London a few weeks back. Nathan's talk was more than inspirational. One thing he talked about was studies.
I decided I would make a start on doing my own. Most of these are from my own photographs although a few are from internet ref/other painters. My focus is on getting the simple statement down so they are devoid of detail. These have been so much fun to do. I am also starting to get a bit of a feel for how to subtly design whilst working from ref. It only takes a few strokes with the right direction to make a piece much more interesting to the eye.
Next week I am going plein air painting one evening to start up some traditional media ones too.