Once the concept phase of the piece has been decided, the next step is to produce a layout drawing.  This gives the commissioner a clear idea of how their piece will start to come together.  With one simple subject the layout drawing is usually straight forward, once you start to add subjects and background, this stage becomes paramount to the finished piece.

For complicated pieces there may be the need to produce an initial rough sketch, to give more of an idea to the commissioner, which will then be used for the layout drawing.  As soon as the layout is approved the commission can begin in earnest.