The Beginning of The Tanaka Portrait

The results of the beginning session of the Portrait of Eddie & Vina Tanaka of Honouli Wai Bay on the island of Moloka'i. I'm doing this one completely from a reference photo. I decided to work ala prima this time, not toning the canvas first as I do a lot of the time. I began this in the evening so I only worked for about an hour and a half on this 24" x 36" canvas of my own construction before I stopped for the night. I don't draw on the canvas with anything before I start painting. I used to long ago, but I discovered I could just start painting and get to where I wanted to go with the picture a lot quicker. The drawing got completely covered up with pigments in the end so I decided that unless I was doing a drawing for itself, it was a waste of time. Drawing is an important skill to develope on the road to becoming a good painter, but it seemed to actually inhibit the progress of the painting portion of the process. The graphite or charcoal, unless used minimally and fixed somehow, would pollute the pigments applied over them. So...when I paint I sketch with paint on a brush instead of a pencil to begin things. Mahalo for stopping by. Aloha, Timo