Going for the one

I'm getting myself psyched up ready to have a go at doing a big painting. I have painted big before - well up to quarter imperial anyway, so it's not going to be such a big deal. I even got my oils out of storage to remind myself of the colours I have and to make sure I had everything I might need if and when the inspiration and time arrives! I'm still undecided about whether or not it's going to be an oil, a pastel or a watercolour. I may even go for gouache. I'm thinking of doing something based on the charcoal drawing in my earlier post, New Horizons, which seemed to get a very good reaction from all of you lovely people out there. It was done from imagination so I have no colour references to help me to take it from the value study I had done but I had a little play with my Inktense pencils just to get a feel for how I could approach a colour version of the scene. I expect I will do a few of these sketches before I'm happy enough to do a full painting.

PS Most pencil manufacturers will tell you not to dip their products directly into water but if you sharpen Inktense pencils properly - with a craft knife or similar, not a conventional sharpener - and expose enough of the core, you can then dip the leads directly into water and then you get fantastic effects almost like painting with mini oilbars! The slight caveat is that continuous dipping of the pencils, as is the case with other water soluble media, does tend to soften the core a little so just be aware of this.