Drawings

There’s a maxim in traditional art academies that if you want to learn how to paint well, you must first learn how to draw.  If one can draw well, one can paint anything. Drawing is in fact the foundation of every realistic painting. 

I agree wholeheartedly. A drawing gives me an opportunity to work out a composition and the value relationships required. I feel it strengthens my visual memory as well. 

Many of my paintings begin with a careful sketch that I later transfer to a panel or canvas for painting.