"From start to finish"

For me, the best thing about being an artist is the beginning of a new piece of work. You have the blank canvas staring you in the face just screaming for your full attention. Your brushes are cleaned and you have a fresh supply of paint on your palette. The smell of turpentine and glue from the canvas begins to fill the room and you are ready to begin. Your mind is fresh and your spirit is high. What a wonderful feeling that is.

This little 10 min sketch is full of mistakes and the proportions are all wrong. And I intend to keep it that way. Why? Because it is a great representation of how I generally start my drawings and sketches. Here I'm just beyond the starting point and have blocked in the biggest shapes with an even light tone. The value is about a number four from white to black on a ten step valuescale. The proportions are indicated and I am ready for the finishing stages of cleaning up my drawing and fixing mistakes.