After putting together a new canvas and priming it with a good layer of white and light brown, I could start sketching in the basic shapes of the composition. It’s moments like these that you realize that scale can really make a difference: It was easier for me to draw the paper sketch than to draw the shapes on a large canvas. It was particulary hard to get the proportions of the little girl right, and even now, I might redo them.

Sketches are like foundations: nobody sees them, but if you get them wrong, the whole thing is wrong. In a way, I guess that life is also like that. So don’t mess with those foundations, get them right. Be it practicing your skills or treating the staff at a grocery store with respect: They may be in the background, but their success is also your success, and also mine.