Never-Before Seen Sketches and WIPs for the Ugandan Sun Series

So when I pulled out my sketchbook the other day to sketch birds to music, a few pages fell out onto my desk. They were the initial sketches and ideas for my Ugandan Sun series, most of which didn't make the final cut. Thought you might like to see them!

This one I halfway completed, but it was too much--it looked more like an overgrown anemone than a sun, so I abandoned it. I'm thinking of maybe chopping it up and turning it into a set of gift tags. Not sure.

This sketch I didn't end up using because it didn't really feel like a sun, it was too wavy and whimsical and weird.

This sketch was actually too big for the paper I was working with. I wanted to keep all of my largest suns comfortably contained within a 5.5"x8.5" paper and based on the same sized central circle, and this sketch just looked too crowded.

I actually really liked this sketch, and a tighter version of it became the final watercolor Bunidbugyo.

This actually is the final sketch for Bunidbugyo. To get all the perfect circles? Coins! :)

Again, this one was cool, but not at all reminiscent of a sun. Maybe a sea critter, but not a sun.

This is actually the final sketch for Karamoja. You can see that I lettered the colored areas Y, R and B for yellow, red and black. Normally I don't plan out my colors--I just start painting and it works out that no adjacent spaces are the same color. But I was nervous about this one and so I planned it out completely before I ever dipped brush to water.