Fear of the Great White

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”
- Sven Goran Eriksson

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Practice 1

I've been doing some quick practice sketches for larger paintings I'm planning. Anything bigger than A4 has been scaring the daylights out of me - I keep taking out the BIG piece of art paper and then quickly putting it away "for another day". I've just got to tackle those large canvasses now, no more procrastinating!

Here are a few sketches I've been doing over the past couple of days. They're all done on Bockingford 300gsm, working quickly to get a feel of the brush as it moves across the paper and they are all 12" x 9". Here I can see what works and what doesn't, where I have to go lighter or darker or where I can improve on my technique. Planning is something totally new to me, but for the large paper looming in front of me, it seems essential this time!


Practice 2


Practice 3


Practice 4


Practice 5


Practice 7