felt pen sketches

when i start an image now i like to begin with just a felt tip, its in hope of reducing my image down to what i need, it helps working out gesture, composition, and light. my initial ideas revolved around a character called shutendoji, an orphan taken into a monastry where he got a thirst for sake, one day he placed a mask on his face while intoxicated, the mask stuck to his face and he was outcast. sent into the wilderness to live with the alone.

 when i began drawing i pictured him stood up, loutish, with a bottle i started to imagine him sat down and it changed the motivation, he looked bored, alone, isolated as in the story.

my further sketches refined a pose, and imagined what the mask could look like- i wanted him resting against a rock simply as a prop to suggest the rural environment.