Part 16—A Thousand Little Decisions

In my last post, I shared the 12 x 18-inch colored rendering of Barnyard Adventures.  I added enough detail to help me visualize the finished painting, but I didn't spend much time shading it, and I used only colored pencils.

As I continued planning, I would make copies of the rendering, cut out the areas I wanted to change, and tape the new versions over the originals. You can actually see some of those paper changes in Part 15.

By this point I thought I had a pretty good handle on what I wanted.

Ha! Not quite!

Even after starting this much larger 24 x 36-inch colored rendering, I was still changing my mind.  The Jacob's Farm sign changed colors, the windmill changed colors, and several other details evolved along the way.

This larger rendering was also very different from the smaller one because of the amount of time, detail, and materials I used.  Instead of relying only on colored pencils, I added pastels and a black ink pen to create richer color and more depth.

I knew these wouldn't be the exact colors I would eventually paint with acrylics, but they gave me a much better feel for the finished piece. My goal was to create bold, cheerful colors that would catch a child's attention from across the room.

As you can see from these photos, I started at the top of the drawing and gradually worked my way down, moving left to right.

And even then...

I knew more changes were still coming.

After all, I am the artist who holds the brush.