For the painting, Gigantoraptor, I start with a sheet of Arches print paper, prepared with 3 coats of black gesso. Then I lay out the drawing using a gray Prismacolor pencil and I block in the flat background color using a palette knife. I like the chunkiness of this backdrop. Then here comes my favorite part! I block in the masses of the head, focusing on the structure, leaving out the details.

I quickly move down the neck, resisting the temptation to overwork this beginning stage.

The body is blocked in, and I stop for a few days. It helps to get away from the piece, to approach this painting with a fresh pair of eyes!

A few days later, I walk into the studio and I am excited about what I have done. At the end of the day, the painting is complete. I photograph it, place it into my InDesign layout and export the page as a JPEG.  Here is the final version with the type in place. This will be part of a spread for a bibliography.