My Work Process for Commissioned Painting

I shall share some pics here from a big project I have been working on. It is a commissioned painting of the Ogden Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The painting is to be 36" x 24" oil painting on canvas. The client has given permission to post progress/process updates on social media. He wanted more representation of trees and flowers, especially purple pansies, than are found in photos available of the temple. He also requested a Autumn color palette.

I must confess it is taking more work than I realized with the amazing detail of this structure! It gives me a heap of respect for the architectural design! Designing the fairly recent (as in a few years ago) remodeling of this temple would have taken incredible skill!

The first step is a sketch in proportion to the canvas - which was a challenge to simplify while keeping the integrity of the temple design. It was then scanned and corrected in Photo Shop -

You cannot 'sort of' draw this type of building, it must be accurate. I then printed the drawing on two sheets of Canson Mi-Teintes Art paper. I am in process of adding values and color. Trees and flowers will be added to the foreground.

My studio drafting table - covered with fun fabric and clear vinyl for protection...

Colored pencil coloring in progress...The placement of foreground flowers & trees

is going to take some 'artistic license' to add.

When the colored drawing is complete, and after the client's approval the drawing will be transferred to the 36" x 24" canvas.

I will keep posting the progress - It is definitely going to take longer than anticipated.  The challenge will be to transfer all the lines of the temple onto canvas accurately -  However, the end desire is to have a artistic painterly painting with feeling, not an architectural rendering.

Thanks for stopping by - I welcome any comments.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Patricia