Making a Tone Study with Notes

I made this study of a shirt using pencil and gouache on brown wrapping paper. As I worked, I noted down what I was thinking about as I was doing it:

Thin, medium weight fabric with a slight sheen.

Avoid the superficial. Combine large and small. Don't simplify, clarify. Paint for a sculptor.

Two variables (of paint): thickness and dryness.

Big brush, get large forms. Make every stroke count. Divide process into sequence of steps. Make every steps have a definite purpose.

Exercise: paint a head in 100 strokes. Hide strokes.

In the rough-in:

—Look for large geometric shapes and basic structure.

—Use side of pencil.

—Keep cross checking

—Subdivide logically

—Cross-check on bilateral symmetry.

(Create) levels of accessibility

Transition from family to family (of forms, shapes and strokes)

See the form as if it were already painted. Pipe fold, zig-zag fold.

The study appears in The Artist's Guide to Sketching, published in 1982.