Sketches to painting - behind the scenes.

(click on the sketchbooks for a larger version)


I thought it would be fun to take part in the "behind the scenes" thing, and show you my initial sketches for the Paris Blues painting/print.

I generally sketch in a fairly haphazard way on any bits of paper which are lying around at the time. When sketching for a particular painting like this one I am really making diagrams, I suppose. I pay attention to the details that capture the essence of a place, for example the styles of windows and doors, roofs and chimneys etc. Street lights, cafes, anything that grabs me. I am not looking for accuracy, just a feeling of being in that place. Although the painting is based on Paris, it doesn't exist like this... just in my brain!

I don't usually plan the composition of any of my paintings, they just evolve.
Once I have made lots of pages of sketches, I decide on the general colour mood, and just get painting.
This painting was originally acrylic on canvas, which I sold. This version was painted digitally using Corel Painter IX. The cats either sit on my paint, or sit on my keyboard. At least the second way they don't end up with multicoloured bottoms.

Whether I am painting digitally or in acrylic on canvas, my process is pretty similar, lots and lots of thin layers.

Anyway, here is the finished piece:

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