The unseen preparation work before starting an artwork

Today, in this little blog post I will go through some of the steps that going into preparing for an artwork before a pencil even touches the paper.

First off, I choose the reference image/images I want to use, this can be either pictures I have taken myself or choosing royalty free images (so I am not infringing on anyone's copyright). Sometimes I know clearly what I want to do and it can take only a few minutes and sometimes I don't have any ideas it's a much longer process and it's in this step, that if art block is going to hit it will and usually hard and who knows how long it will take then.

Next, editing the image/images this for me involves either cropping the image/images or using my digital drawing app to create a rough sketch/mockup if I am involving multiple images to workout how I want the final piece to look. The purpose of this step for me, whether it's for one image or more that one, is to lay the groundwork for what I want the final piece to look like of course this isn't 100% set because as I am working on the piece I might make little changes along the way to make the piece look better but it gives a very good foundation.

This step really is a bit optional and is really dependent on the piece of art and that is digital tracing, this prepares me to do the sketch, like I said its dependent on the piece because sometimes I don't need to do it and I can just do a free hand sketch without it, sometimes I do a digital tracing if there are multiple complex component so I can see a clear outline so I can sketch it freehand onto my page. But when it comes to a pet portrait commission I do digital trace and then from that digital trace, trace it onto the page because I have had a experience before when I free handed the sketch and it turn out that one of the eyes were abit more closed that it should be by less then 1mm !!! You can't imagine the emotions I felt everything perfect except for one eyelid abit more closed by less that 1mm, 80 hours of work wasted! So after that insisted I always trace pet portrait commissions to avoid anymore 1mm insistances.

This step is the final step and it's the preparation for actually starting the piece such as choosing the colours and if I haven't already choosing what size I am going to do the piece at and if needed cut the paper to size and then marking out where the mount is going to sit.

Then at last it's time to start doing the piece, the most exciting bit in my opinion. From start to finish the preparation time can take anywhere from half an hour to 4 hours or more, it's the unseen bit but it's the bit that is the most important because without it there wouldn't be an artwork.

I hope you enjoyed this little blog post about the unseen processes that go on before an artwork is even started.