Gearing Up and Down
How do I begin a new year’s worth of paintings? Previously I have kept sketchbooks of thumbnail images –basically small inch by inch sized sketches or thoughts of an idea. I don’t work out details in this it is just a nugget of an idea on design, subject, or a color note. Because I always have a sketchbook going–too many to count in my studio–it has been a bit difficult to keep track of images that I’ve wanted to explore further.
My answer? Thumbnail pages. I went through my recent year of so sketchbooks and took a photo of each little drawing–over 200 plus–then using Adobe Bridge software brought them all into the program to create a 12 page pdf. I then put a symbol in color near each little picture–c=couples, f=fisherman, etc. Then cut them all apart and regrouped them according to my symbol system. Now I can review similar ideas on one page like shown above. The little black and white is a what I use to refer to to design a new painting–see lower right.
A bit of time to do this–about 6 hours of searching through sketchbooks, photoing, then computer work. But now I have at a glance what I need to gear up for the mountain of work ahead of me this year. Now to get down to business…
Lesson learned: Be prepared.
Ann Trainor Domingue art 