My Original Artwork-in-Progress ~ Alpine Hamlet

I’m not a natural artist, as even my doodles look more like scribbles than doodles, so I enjoy sharing the process of how I go about painting with acrylics on canvas.  Perhaps I can encourage others through sharing my creative process to pursue their interests, too, even though they also struggle from a lack of ‘natural’ talent.

We’d all like to be gifted in the areas of our interests and passions, but that’s not normally how life works.  For me, I work with my strengths and try to minimize my weak areas as far as art goes.  My process is essentially one of procedural graphics, that I follow step-by-step throughout the entire process of painting a picture.

Once I have a concept in mind for a new painting, I search Google Images for concept photos to inspire the direction I’ll approach the subject from.  Once I find a photo to use, I print and scale it in a grid pattern to the same scale as the canvas I’m working on, and then free-hand the image onto my canvas ~ in this case the mountain backdrop.  Then I acquire other photos I need like buildings, often cutting them out to trace the basic dimensions and perspectives onto the canvas.  After that I free-hand in whatever additional details I’d like to include.

Mine is an architectural interest, without the training or skill, as I enjoy drawing buildings using a mechanical pencil, ruler and plotter. While I understand perspective, I struggle to interpret it correctly, which is why I often need to use an image for an example to get it right.  Once I have the basic details sketched out on the canvas I can ad lib the rest, especially while painting, as I feel no need to follow the guidelines I’ve sketched out and just let the painting discover itself and play out naturally at that point.

Here’s the finished rough sketch of my current Artwork-in-Progress ~ Alpine Hamlet (11″ x 14″), so let the painting begin! ☼ 🙂

My Original Artwork-in-Progress ~ Alpine Hamlet (11″ x 14″)

(Copyright 2016,  Mark D. Jones, All Rights Reserved)

My Artwork-in-Progress ~ Alpine Hamlet (11" x 14") (Copyright 2016, Mark D. Jones, All Rights Reserved)

My Artwork-in-Progress ~ Alpine Hamlet (11″ x 14″) (Copyright 2016, Mark D. Jones, All Rights Reserved)

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