Me? I'm in tatters.

When I start a painting I first draw a grid on the primed canvas and a corresponding grid on the photograph I'm going to use.  I then, in the most ancient of traditions, roughly transfer the photographic image to a charcoal sketch.  I then take more primer and white-out the grid lines.

I do that most of the time, although you can argue that one of the most exciting parts of Black and White Krugman is the visibility of the grid ...

Leaving the grid in place seems to work better with the black and white paintings.  With my more typical paintings, the build-up of pigment would end up obscuring most of the grid anyway, but I like to get rid of it in the beginning because I find it to be a distraction while I paint.

Whiting out the grid is the subject of this video.  Disregard the singing, please ...



Or don't.  I don't give a damn.  The painting, titled Helicopter Ben, ended up looking like this ...

It should be noted, I suppose, that despite my frequent assertions to the contrary, I do, in fact, sometimes use a brush.  But, barring the most unusual of circumstances, I only do so at the beginning of the painting and at the end, when I'm inscribing the title.