A Good Sketch often leads to a Good Painting...

Pencil Sketch for a new Painting

Sketching is the basic foundation of Painting, especially when it comes to Portraits. Even landscape paintings need some sort of sketching. A good Sketch always leads to a good Painting. It is easy to mess with proportions or compositions if the Painting is attempted directly unless it is purely an abstract painting.

Sketch leading to Painting

Pencil is often the sketching-tool for Watercolor Painting. The sketch doesn't need to be very detailed. Just an outline suggesting some highlights, basic composition and separation of objects in the painting is good enough for starting a watercolor painting. Much of the details can be added later while painting.

A good Painter, in my opinion, needs to have good Drawing skills. Here is an outline sketch that I did for my new Painting on the subject Indian Classical Dance with a Hindu Temple as the back-drop. Once the sketch is done, Painting is nothing but following the flow of water on the paper, mixed with skill and imagination of colors. It leads to a beautiful Painting.

One needs to master drawing in order to master Painting!

Hard-work and only hard-work makes anything possible ;)

Keep Sketching and Keep Painting!