Rough thumbnail. Literally the size of my thumbnail.

WARNING: Nerdy Artist Post. I love hearing about how other artists create their work, so for fun, I thought I would share my own process.

1. ROUGH THUMBNAIL: After staring at tarot cards and making contact with ETs while in an art trance, I am gifted with an initial idea that I draw super small and quickly. My rough thumbnail sketches are about the size of a postage stamp.

2. WOKING THUMBNAIL: I gather some reference material and draw what I call my, "working thumbnail". This is usually a bit smaller than a postcard. If I am happy with the idea at this point, then I will consider making the idea into a painting.

3. I DRAW EVERYTHING ONTO A PANEL: I don't use any fancy transfer method, I just re-draw everything and spend a ton of time erasing and re-drawing until things look okay.

4. UNDERPAINTING: After covering the drawing with three coats of matte medium to seal the board, I paint the first layer in titanium white and raw umber, creating a monochromatic painting. I do this to establish my values and because I can correct my drawing much more quickly without having to push around colors.

5. COLOR LAYER: After the underpainting is complete, the real painting begins. At this stage, I begin adding small details and trying to make things look neat. And after many hours of podcasts and audiobooks, the painting is done! Yay!

6. THE END: Finally, I varnish the piece, photograph it, and frame it. Sometimes I make prints too!

7. GO BACK TO STEP 1.

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