I am working on an upcoming exhibition for a two woman show this August at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles. I wanted to share some of my process of how I get a drawing started for a painting.

I start out with a small very loose rough drawing that I then scan and blow up to the size I want to draw the larger version at.

I then print it out and put it on the light table to transfer to a nice large sheet of smooth Bristol. I just lightly trace the rough drawing to get my start on the more refined drawing. I find that when I use the rough drawing as a guide I get much better results than trying to redraw it by just looking at the rough.

There is a certain flow and looseness to the line work that happens in the rough stage that I want to transition to the final drawing. If the layout works at 2 inches, you know it will work at 20 inches, or even 20 feet.

Once I have lightly traced the drawing, I turn off the light table and I can then make adjustments and refine the drawing.

And my final drawing is complete! Supernova is born! Next step, I’ll be transferring the drawing to a large wood panel with a projector and begin the painting!