Preparatory drawing by Alex Bauwens
Alex has been doing some still life paintings in grisaille and this is her latest effort... or at least it will be. This is a drawing in graphite she's done as a preparatory study for the painting. A preliminary drawing like this allows an artist to establish the composition of a picture, the structure and proportion of forms, and the organization of light masses and shadows before actually starting to paint. It's an approach that we encourage our students to take because it separates the many difficult challenges of painting into manageable steps. Once this image is transferred to canvas the major drawing issues will have been resolved already, allowing Alex to focus on her paint handling and values. Divide and conquer!
