Sketching - The Start of my Process

Thank you for supporting me.

So, in order to catch up from the start of this art project to when I began my Patreon, here are the initial sketches that I made before painting each work.

Not all the sketches are complete - there are a lot of background construction lines and other layers that I used to get to this initial sketch but while building up each painting I tend to discard those or overpaint them to save on file size.

I generally start with a very loose sketch and build up to something like the sketches you see here, often drawing different elements or characters on different layers so that I can isolate them individually.

After the sketch is done I then go to a 'flats' stage where I lay down individual layers of flat colour to create silhouettes, and after that the painting begins proper.

I hope you'll enjoy future works coming together as I promise to show you the stages from sketch through to final work on each painting.

A Few Facts

If you're interested, I do all of my painting in Clip Studio Paint on a Samsung Galaxy Book with a Staedtler stylus.  The reason for that is that Clip Studio is substantially cheaper than Photoshop, runs like a dream on my little portable tablet PC and means I can draw anywhere.  (I do have a massive PC with all the bells and whistles for my IRL professional but for my own stuff I like to work 'on the go' - able to sit in the kitchen, hang out with my partner and draw like I would on a sketchpad, grabbing minutes here and there to move each painting along.)

And regarding resolution - I draw everything at 2806 x 3508 pixels - which I chose as it is the same aspect ratio as Instagram wants for its portrait images. When I'm finished I scale the final image down to 1080 x  1350 pixels - because that's also what Instagram asks for and that resolution works well for all other platforms that aren't as picky as Insta.

I've found working at 2806 x 3508 is enough resolution for me to be able to dig into detail if I need to (although I'm working to keep my paintings as loose and energetic as possible) and runs easily with 40+ layers in Clip Studio on the Samsung without slowdown. It is also a high enough resolution to create an approximately 9" x 11.5" print, should I ever wish to make them.

I hope that gives you a little info on how my work begins.  Once again, thank you for joining me on this journey - from now on, you'll be able to see my new works coming together from sketch to final painting.