Without the drawings none of my paintings would exist.
I use pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and pastel to make these works.
I have numerous sketch books.
From these small sketches, an idea for a painting is germinated.
Through making these various sketches, a composition is formed for a possible painting.
I will then make what I call the ‘main drawing’.
I will start with a simple sketch on paper to outline the composition and elements within the painting.
From this simple pencil ‘outline’ drawing I will start the drawing on the canvas.
Watercolour will provide the a guide, for the initial colour to put down on the canvas. I will conclude this ‘working drawing’ by going over the original drawing with pen and ink. This confirms the drawing and reinforces the composition for me.
These ‘construction drawings’ will stay with me throughout the duration of a single painting. They will remain my main source of recording a particular subject.
A single large canvas may accumulate up to twenty or thirty drawings before it is resolved.
The returning, and returning to the subject is paramount to the success of my paintings. I may even return to the subject in the landscape to draw it but never actually use my drawing, the experience again of being in front of the subject, continues to cement what exactly I want to painting to ‘look like’, it cements the idea.