Inspiration

There’s a lot of tecchie stuff to do when you’re an artist and today I started scaling up some sketches onto the large pieces of paper I’ve prepared for a series of ‘manier noir’ drawings. I started by soaking some Fabriano Accademica 240gsm and stretching it onto one of my studio walls (good idea to soak the wall a bit first) and when they were dry, gave them 2 coats of acrylic gesso. Then when that was dry, I rubbed the two outer ones with compressed charcoal and the centre one with graphite block and turpentine.

I’ve been sitting looking at them for a couple of weeks now, frustrated because I couldn’t think what to do with them. Then inspiration finally hit today as I sifted through loads of sketches. I now have a good idea of how I want to progress with the series. People sometimes ask me where my inspiration comes from? For me it’s sitting and thinking, searching through reference material; researching from books and t’Internet, but mostly sitting and thinking and not beating myself up because I’m not constantly working on the making of the art.