Stage 2 · February 19, 2026
This past week has been devoted almost entirely to the drawing for my current project and third painting: a large panoramic scene of the fishmongers preparing for the morning at Pike Place Market here in Seattle. With nine figures moving through the space, it’s a composition that demands discipline early on. There is simply too much at stake here to rush the foundation.
I’m treating the drawing as a structural audit. Before a single note of color enters the conversation, I want the proportions, perspective, and underlying shapes to feel inevitable and coherent. The ceiling, the floor, the horizon line, the stacked geometry of counters and crates, the recession of space, all of it must lock together. I’ve been using a ruler relentlessly, covering the paper in measured lines, wiping graphite off the side of my hand, erasing and redrawing until the architecture of the scene feels stable. It’s labor-intensive work, but it’s clarifying.
For me, painting is a form of juggling. The fewer variables I have to manage at once, the stronger the result. If drawing, value, color, edge, and detail are all competing for attention simultaneously, one of those consideration is more likely to slip through the cracks. By resolving the structural questions now and making the drawing airtight, I can later devote myself fully to value relationships, then to color, and finally to the subtleties of edges and surface decisions.
Stepping back from the drawing periodically has been essential. Distance reveals what proximity hides. My hope is that by the end of this week, or early next, the drawing will be resolved enough to ink ut and begin the underpainting. That transition always feels like crossing a threshold from planning into execution, and I’m eager to step into it.
