Life After Life: Gibberish

For the last 4 years, some old friends and I have contributed to a 'Gallery of Terror' blog every October. It's a fun way to keep in touch and there's usually a theme to follow.

This year's theme is 'Life After Life.'

I thought it would be fun to post a week by week progression of how I develop my piece for the gallery.

My process begins with scribbling down ideas in the form of thumbnails and little notes to myself. Since the creation of my handy-dandy homemade sketchbook, I can do this much easier on the fly and don't have to rely on trying to compile doodles from scraps of paper throughout the day (at least I don't have to rely on doing that as much as before.)

Most people are disappointed when they peer into my sketchbook, since I use it mainly for brainstorming and figuring out good compositions, not making pretty pictures -that part comes much later.

Here are 4 pages from my sketchbook for this piece. Decipher them if you dare!!

When I feel I've got a good idea, I also create a reference folder on my computer (sometimes with sub-folders within it) and start gathering images (generally off the web) to help me with some of the details of the painting, specify a mood, and sometimes even spark further ideas for how I could develop the painting later on.

Here's a screen shot of the reference I've collected so far. This is pretty average for the amount of reference I collect for any image. Sometimes there's a whole lot more.

Anyways, I'll be sharing what my idea is for this gallery piece in the following weeks. Or at least you'll be able to see it for yourself as it develops further.