Russell Black - Demo

"Outback Shack"
22" x 30"

Getting ready for a demo is a lot of work. There is the creation of the idea (see below post for the initial sketch), the materials to get ready, and of course the enlargement of the small sketch to the full size sheet (above), which in this case is a full sheet at 22" x 30" of 140lb cold pressed paper.

I don't think it's any secret that I draw these things for myself. If you've read any of the posts on this blog you know my feelings about artists who trace from photos and play coloring book with the image. I don't dislike mechanical devices as much as I dislike artists who use them as a crutch for being too lazy to learn to draw properly. As a graphic artist I routinely used cameras and projection devices to enlarge or reduce work, and I was fortunate to have them. That being said, the work was always original and not a tracing from some other source (I didn't even trace from my own photography, still don't).

Taking an original sketch and using a device to enlarge it up or down to the proper size is just fine with me, so long as it is an original sketch drawn by hand. In this particular case, due to the size of the sheet, it was simply faster to draw the sketch out by hand again vs. getting all of the equipment out, setting it up, and then projecting the image. Here is where you benefit from having the skill sets. I don't waste time with grids or preliminary lines, I just go at it. There are a few computer programs that can produce a set of tiled images at any size, but anything much larger than a half sheet gets too large in file size for most PCs or Macs to handle. So, it's back to good old basic drawing skills, which never fail to work under any circumstances. A #2 yellow pencil and I'm good to go.

With all of the hard work done, I can now concentrate on painting this subject at the 3 hour demo I'm giving tomorrow night. I plan on finishing this full sheet in that amount of time, so it should be a fun evening.