I started work on this idea of mine that I've been mulling over for some time: to paint large versions of those wild and crazy medieval Spanish illuminated paintings of the apocalypse. I chose St Michael Fighting the Dragon from the Silos apocalypse.
This is the preliminary drawing, done directly on the canvas, which is 28X42. I mention the size cause it is much bigger, of course, then the illuminated painting. I just went for it and drew directly onto the canvas with no preliminary drawings. When people say this in books and articles their work always seems suspiciously neat. Whereas I've already run into trouble trying to cover my 'happy mistakes' so as to have that pen and ink look of the original. Not that I'm trying to recreate the original. For one thing the proportions are off, so things are a bit stretched and squashed. But I am having fun!
I decided to just go for it after reading a quote from an artist yesterday who said she chooses what to work on based on the idea: If this is the last piece I do, what do I want it to be?
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