Malcolm Bright

“You’re not deficient,” he says gently. “You’re inexperienced. The only way up is through.”

He steps in again, taking the pencil and showing Malcolm how to stage the sketch, how to capture the shapes of it and focus on the pieces to build the whole. How to mark the light sources and the way light reflects off the curve of the bowl. Somewhere in the middle of it all he starts handing the pencil back and forth with Malcolm, showing him part of what to do and having him finish the rest. “We’re painting over it, so it doesn’t have to have a huge amount of detail. That’s up to your preference. Interestingly, there are some artists whose underpainting layers are as complex as what they work over the top, but it’s not a requirement.”