Should You Sketch in Pencil on Your Canvas First?

Should you paint directly on canvas or sketch and prepare studies before committing to the final version? There really is no right or wrong answer to this question.  

When I was a beginner painter, I always did a pencil drawing on the canvas before painting.  It made things so much easier but at the same time, made it harder to stay loose.  So as I was learning more and more about painting from several artists, I discovered some use drawings and some just went ahead and painted directly.  

It just comes down to what you’re trying to achieve.   For example, if you’re painting a detailed portrait of a person, animal or a structure, it’s important to sketch it out lightly with pencil or charcoal first before starting to paint.  However, if your subject is likely a landscape or florals, there really isn’t a need to do a detailed sketch. Sometimes though, it’s nice to see parts of the pencil line or sketch in the painting because to me, it is part of the process and shows the viewer the “artist’s hand.”  

So should we draw out before we paint or just go for it, painting freely?  For me, I’ve done both.  Here are a few examples of where I have done both: a pencil sketch directly on the paint surface and/or gone straight to drawing a loose sketch with a paintbrush.

When painting florals, however, I will usually just sketch it out with the paintbrush right on the canvas.  You can see that process in some of my YouTube videos. When sketching onto the canvas with the paintbrush, I can quickly create a “map” of the elements and design my composition.  This keeps things loose and if I do change something, the underpainting isn’t really permanent.  It will peek through anyway and add more color and harmony. 

So to answer this week’s topic:  I personally think that drawing before painting is important because it helps you plan out compositional ideas that will ultimately create stronger works of art.  In every painting, I plan first on my iPad in the Procreate app and then sketch either with the pencil or paintbrush on the canvas depending on the results I want.  More detailed works require lots of planning and drawing but for more looser works, quick gestural sketches with the paintbrush is all that is needed.  I know it will take practice to draw loosely with the paintbrush directly on the canvas, but eventually you’ll discover it’s much more freeing and fun.