How I Go From a Sketched Idea to a Fully Realized Painting

 

A quick pencil sketch from my sketchbook, that became my in-progress “Butterflies in the Sky” painting below.

Still a work in progress…”Butterflies in the Sky,” acrylic on panel, 24″ x 24″. 

The sketch at the top of the page here took me all of about 30 seconds, with a few notes added in the seconds afterward. I generally keep my sketchbook near me, whether I’m doing household chores, preparing meals or painting. My ideas appear as out-of-the-blue epiphanies, as a flash, and I get them down as quickly as possible, then move on with my day. 

When it comes time to decide what I’ll be working on next, I flip through my sketchbook, and consider which of my sketches are worthy of being developed. Then it becomes a more refined color sketch, and after that, for my Cookie Landscape paintings, I bake and decorate the scene, photograph it, and proceed to the many hours — often hundreds of hours — of the painting process. 

I’m really loving working on these Cookie Landscapes. They enable me to be endlessly creative, and hone my technical skills as well. From across the room, they really look quite magical, quite dimensional (despite being totally flat), and that challenge of being able to create a painting that isn’t just fun and beautiful, but one that can also trick people into thinking that there is some sort of dimension or texture, it really excites me as an artist. 

If you like these works and want to see more, I post my daily progress frequently to TikTok and to my Instagram stories. If you want to see full process videos, I post those, too, when the pieces are done. You can check out my latest one, showing the process of designing, baking, decorating, then painting “Here Comes the Sun” on my Instagram

Thanks so much for visiting! 

Kim Testone
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Kim Testone

Artist Kim Testone

I’m a full-time acrylic realism and trompe l’oeil painter creating whimsical food paintings inspired by real-life creations that I bake, decorate or scoop in my kitchen. All of my paintings are flat, painted with many thin layers of acrylic paint, aiming to look at three-dimensional as possible. I hope you’ll join me on the journey of creating art that brings a little happy magic into the world. I’ll be sharing my process, my insights, and hopefully some things that will inspire you to appreciate the little things around you every day.

The Formal Stuff:

  • B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Central Florida
  • M.A. in Arts Administration from Savannah College of Art and Design
  • Former Art Magazine Editor

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