This week in my sketchbook I’ve been working on thumbnails before I jump into a larger project. Only recently I learned the value in this exercise. I used to feel like I was confident enough to just jump into a painting or illustration without this crucial step.
In this image I was thinking about doing this scene where two people are walking through a dense jungle and they happen upon a cabin that’s hit perfectly by a ray of sunshine through the canopy.
I spent roughly half an hour on this page, and came up with three different points of view for the image in my mind. The small investment of time i spent planning is really going to help when i do the final painting.
Of the three, I chose to go with the second image. I felt like it captured best what I saw in my head. The next time saving technique is to lay down some color digitally on that same sketch. This could have easily been with markers or colored pencils as well, just something quick that I could see what I’m looking for a little clearer.
This image took roughly an hour to lay down the colors I want to use for the final painting, as of right now I think this will be my stopping point. But in the coming months I will paint this with oil paints.
I think the entire process here took a few hours, but it will save me a week of headache when I’m ready to lay down paint. Plus, its fun to draw little thumbnails of your scene, you can tweak the values and lines just right before the larger piece.
As always folks, keep drawing, no matter how much or how little!
WKW Illustrations 
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