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Here is my initial, rough pencil sketch, done on 8 1/2 x 11" copier paper, of that idea. The image does share some similarities to the 'Stardust' painting. Both are set in the deep, moonlit woods and filled with all sorts of fairy life. This preliminary drawing is rendered more elaborately than I would normally do for a simple concept sketch, as I generally like to work out all my finished ideas on the actual board that I will be working on. With this sketch I'm still just trying to establish the overall composition as well as attempting to convey the general mood of the piece. There is no practical sense in adding all the countless details that will be necessary to achieve the painting's finished look until after the client says that he (or she) likes it. Then, too, it is extremely boring and tedious to have already worked out all the details of a piece at this early stage and then have to redraw them all onto the actual working illustration board.
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After the sketch was approved, I then enlarged it on my copy machine to the actual size (16 x 23") that I was going to paint the final piece. With the aid of a sheet of transfer paper, I traced the enlarged image off onto my preferred paper (Strathmore Series 500, 4 ply) and hours and hours of redrawing later I arrived at this finished pencil drawing. For me the process of drawing involves quite a bit of looking through art and reference books that fill my studio. This is not so much looking for how someone has already done the same idea and trying to copy their approach --- where would be the aesthetic fun in that? --- but seeking random visual inspiration. What I might be looking for is a particular color of moonlight that a certain artist has used in a painting, the toss of a horse's head, an interesting pattern in a dress or the peculiar twist of a tree branch. Hopefully my subconscious will store all these details and when I start to draw it will be able to access that visual information. For instance; after looking through numerous photographic books on trees and taking a long, observant walk through a nearby woodland, the rather generic tree from the sketch has become one of my favorites, a beech, and in the process assumed much more character and detail. As you can see I've also added lots of new characters into the drawing, placed details into all the costuming as well as specific facial characteristics for all those denizens of my latest fairyland extravaganza. I find that it also helps if, as I draw each of these characters, their particular story plays out in my thoughts. This mental process seems to add a certain reality to each elf, fairy, boggart, dragon, mermaid, root system or cat. But you have to be careful and not allow any of these inhabitants of Faery steal the spotlight for themselves. Every character, be they humanoid or rock or tree, needs to be integral to the picture as a whole.
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