Pencil thumbnails for Haym Salomn

Step 1:  First I read through the story and plan the book out in little thumbnail sketches.  The goal here is to distill the key action and emotion for each page.   I also make notes about setting, time of day, and color:

Step 2:  Next I talked with my editor, Howard.  He and I discussed the sequencing of the story and images for the whole book.  There are no drawings on this second pass, just notes for what goes where:

Step 3:  The third pass has a little more detail in the drawings, but still very rough as I work out the visual flow of the book:

 Detail of Third Pass:   A Knock on Haym's Door at Night.  Notice the notes to myself about time of day, city and street, and the gist of the action:

Step 4:  Research Colonial architecture.   (Library and online)

Step 5:  Acrylic study in black and white on copy paper.  The basic idea stays the same, but the architectural details from my research flesh it out:

 Step 6:  Acrylic study in color on copy paper.  This is painted right over a photo copy of the black and white acrylic study.  The color really helps set the mood for the scene:

 Step 7:  Final Art.  Oil on canvas:

Each painting for a book goes through the same process.   The one part of the process not shown here are do-overs.  Several times on each book project, I have to scrap a painting that just isn't working and start over.   Professional artist don't get it right every time.   It takes perseverance- learning to keep trying until it's right.

I hope you feel inspired to go paint something!