Preliminary sketch in CP

I often think the preliminary sketches are better than the proper painting that comes later. There is always this feeling of immediacy in this type of sketch which is easily lost. I like all the scratchy lines in this one, moving this way and that, which gives the sketch energy. I can't say I ever do preliminary sketches mainly because once I have drawn a subject for the first time, that initial excitement can never be re-captured when you come to do the painting, and it often shows.

I think that's true - my oil painting, which I'll post when it's dry enough to take outside and photograph, based on this actually took on a very different direction - had I just tried to replicate the sketch, I think I would have become somewhat jaded with it; but it's an interesting subject, simple but full of possibilities to do things differently, and I'll come back to it in other media.