I like to do a color study prior to painting my final version of the image. The study below is painted at 5x5 inches. I tend to prep my board with a textured clear gesso stained sepia. I then sketch on the board in charcoal. After that I complete the sketch using burnt sienna and black. finally I go in with color painted in fairly quickly and directly..
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| Indian Summer (Study) M Francis McCarthy |
Here is the same motif painted at 8x8 inches. Though the size is still quite small you can see the image is far more refined in every way. the method use is much like my studies however more time and care is payed to the initial drawing. Also, there are more layers of transparent color and more time and repeated sessions are applied to the piece shown below.
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| Indian Summer M Francis McCarthy |