Roughing It: A Starting Point.

I’ve been mulling over an idea for ages, years, for a large woodcut or maybe a painting. I’ve been doing smaller pieces of work that have been independent of each other, but also try out elements of a potential larger artwork. Today I finally got off my bot and grabbed an A3 sketchbook (brown paper) and did some rough sketching with conte crayons. This is the first rough, no doubt there will be many more as I refine the composition and then the details, but this here is my starting point. I wonder how long it will take to get to the finishing point?

The inspiration comes from my participation in the Mari Lwyd events locally for the past few years, they’re usually at night and often feature fire. I’ve made a lot of sketches and a few prints. I’ve also been working on a few small paintings of people at night, outside in the firelight, that will feed into this as well.