I like this little painting. It has all the elements that I hope for. There is line, strong darks and lights, thick paint, thin paint and bold color!  It also has a mood or implies feeling, but it’s ambivalent about what that sentiment is exactly.

A couple years ago I started photographing all of my Figure sketches which I then downloaded to my computer. I am not the best photographer so I have since moved on to a scanner.  I now scan most of my pieces unless they are too big for the scanner and I am forced to take a photograph. I now have close to a thousand images in my Figure Sketches file and I have been very excited about this. I have tried to share this new to me process of cataloging my work with other people who don’t really share my enthusiasm. I understand why, I mean, so you have a bunch of figure Sketches on your computer, lots of people have pictures on their computer.

My previous process of developing a painting was to physically go through all the sketches in my file cabinet and spread them all over the floor of my studio where I could see multiple figures at once and chose which poses I wanted to work with. Then, because I had little ones crawling around on the floor as well as not wanting to accidentally step on the work, I would put all of the images back in the drawers except for the few that I wanted to work with. The remaining images that I wanted to work with I would tape up on the walls and create sketches from so that all of the poses were in the same format (size). From there I could start to develop my painting composition.

The process took days.

I have an iPad and I have multiple Adobe apps installed on it, including Lightroom. When I’m looking for poses to work with and they aren’t already on my iPad, I go to my computer, which is in the house, find the images put them in a collection in Lightroom where they will then upload to my iPad where I will have the images readily available in the studio. From there I can easily swipe back and forth between images as I develope my painting composition.

It’s amazing how such a simple adjustment in work flow can make a huge difference in one’s work. Eventually I will post a painting, of which I am currently working on, that illustrates the results of this process.