A Finished Sketch

Ok, I got my creative juices flowing and finished my sketch. I realize these lines are not that dark ( and may be causing eye strain right this minute) but they are as dark as I could make them so let me take you through what I have drawn. I decided to do a fantasy painting and it centers around a woman and a unicorn in the foreground. In the background, just beyond them, there is an ocean and mountains and a little body of land off to the right.

You are probably wondering, if you've been following my blog, how I went from deciding on one of the below butterfly photos to paint, to starting a fantasy painting. Well, I had picked one of the photos below, in fact, I picked the butterfly on the Lily as I thought it would look great on a really big canvas. Once I decided on it however, I just couldn't seem to get the image down on canvas, for some reason, it just wasn't working for me.

I've become increasingly interested lately in fantasy paintings. I've done a flower fairy already and had so much fun with it, I decided to do a whole series of them. I'll post that painting at some point and go over the whys and hows with you. I've also really had a great desire to paint unicorns these days. So, last week, when I was washing my hair no less, it came to me, the fact that I wanted to do a fantasy painting. Once I got that bright idea, I mulled over a few thoughts as to what kind of images I wanted to portray and I decided to create a unicorn painting.

I'm by no means giving up on the butterfly painting, I'll just do that at another time. If you remember what I said in an earlier post, I mentioned that I really never know what I'll paint until it is actually put down in a sketch, on the the surface I"m painting on. That is when I know I'm truly committed to my subject. Up until that point, I"m constantly mulling over ideas in my head until I get an image down that I'm happy with. So, I'll be starting from the back and working my way forward, which means I'll be starting with the sky. I will be posting pictures of my sky next, to show you the colors I decide on and the progress I make with it.