Scholars have unearthed hundreds of sketches by artist Francis Bacon that have been hidden away in his former studio for decades.

The discovery of the drawings, and some of Bacon's paintings that were thought to have been destroyed, has given art experts new insights into the way the artist worked.

Bacon famously destroyed many of his paintings

Over 70 drawings which were found offer evidence that Bacon did make preliminary sketches of some of his best known works, something he said he stopped doing after 1962.

Fragments of one of the paintings he destroyed - 1946's Study For Man With Microphones - were also discovered.

The painting vanished in 1948 and has always been thought of as a lost artwork.

Other items thought to have given Bacon inspiration, including magazine articles and a book from 1920 featuring photos of paranormal activity, were also uncovered.

Bacon drawing of a biomorphic figure in black ink on lined paper, 1930s

The material was found by scholars who have been re-creating his famously chaotic Kensington Studio at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.

The Gallery has been working on the project for two years and plans to present its new findings on Bacon at a symposium to be held in November.

""We spent two years going through every single item," Margarita Cappock, curator of the Francis Bacon Studio and Archive at the Hugh Lane Gallery told BBC News Online.

"Our findings show that Bacon was a lot more deliberate in his work than he pretended to be."

Painting on canvas (figure study, advanced stages, destroyed), 1950s

Bacon was born in Ireland to English parents but he left Ireland when he was a teenager. He died in Spain in 1992.

For 30 years, he worked in a studio at 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington.

His studio was known for being chaotic and messy, with every inch of floor space covered by newspapers, tins of paint and photos.

Bacon himself once wrote that his studio was the only place he could work because he was incapable of working in places that were too tidy.