"Gunslinger" - sketch

Digital painting (Corel Painter)

I thought I'd post up a preliminary study for a painting that's been in the pipeline for a while now. The idea was to do a cowboy or gunslinger type character - something with a Wild West theme to it.

I had this particular pose in mind - a dark, shadowy figure standing outside a saloon, daring anyone to get in his way. I did a couple of quick drawings, liked them, and so jumped right into the oil painting. Big mistake! It wasn't long before I completely lost my way, grew frustrated with it and threw in the towel. The problem was I didn't haven enough information to do the painting. The line drawing was fine, but I hadn't given any thought to what the colours were going to be, where the light was coming from, what the values would be.

Fast forward to today and, having left my gunslinger alone for a few weeks, I was ready to have another crack at him. This time, rather than diving into the painting, I concentrated on getting the lighting and values all worked out. I knew I wanted the lighting to be quite dynamic and atmospheric, and after a lot of trial and error I came up with this. It's hard work trying to completely invent a lighting scenario, but it's worth it for the reference it gives you when you get to the final painting. Sketching this one digitally was also helpful because I could experiment more easily and could quickly erase mistakes and try again. The whole process was one of pushing and pulling until I got something I liked.

The next step will be to do some colour sketches, which should be more straightforward I think. After that it'll be on to the final painting. Hurrah!