What's new at Sleepy Cat Studio

We often get to see an artist's finished work, but don't usually get to see the steps leading up to the end result. So this time when I set up my canvas, I stopped every so often to take a picture. To keep it fairly simple, I've just included the basic progression. I started by mapping out what goes where- horizon line, tree, etc. Then I blocked in colors and shapes, eventually moving the tree a little and adding a second tree. When things were basically where I wanted them, I played with the sky- clouds, or no clouds? And I fine tuned the textures and details. The hard part was remembering to stop every so often to take a picture. Eric came up with a title, something I often have trouble with. Voila! All done.

In art history classes I was always fascinated with the clues that have been discovered about an art work's creation. X rays that reveal the drawing underneath and studies the artist did- showing changes and the evolution of the piece. These insights make the artist seem so real to me, so human. Sometimes the finished piece of work is so amazing that it's hard to imagine that initial blank canvas or block of stone. I don't think the clues we can discover diminish the magic of art, but instead bring us closer to it, and to the artist. So here's a little insight to this particular painting, a little insight to me and how I work.