A Suggested Approach (--added booklist--)

[IvkeBG]

/edit/ I just recently returned to this thread and couldn't believe the amount of the crap I spilled. Who the hell am I to tell anyone anything. I've still got a looong way to go. Here's the short version, the one within the boundaries of sanity.

Hi all,

This is my chosen approach to finishing a painting. By no means am I advocating this as the only or the best method. I am a beginner and I hope this will be useful to other people like me. The following text is my condensed and combined knowledge absorbed from notes, books and trial and error. Hope you enjoy it.

1. Brainstorming ideas, sketching and composition
2. Collecting references/ posing models or props
3. Preliminary studies, value and color studies
4. Final painting

[fantasyartist]

I totally agree with you in the sequence of the steps. This is kinda the approach I use most of the times, but sometimes when there isn't a lot of time to complete the painting I try to take the easy way out and usually find myself going back again and again to those early steps and it can be very frustrating.

[IvkeBG]

Fantasyartist, thanks for the reply!

I agree with you, it's not always easy. In fact it is damn hard to discipline yourself to go through the same sequence of steps every time, but I think it's more than rewarding. I'm trying to make it a habit, like brushing teeth or whatnot :)