I have a good handle on the first layer of the arches, I'll need a slight dry on this before I start the second layer.
(I’m giving you a sneak peek of how I paint. I usually don’t do this, mostly because I really don’t have a process or maybe I do and just don’t know it yet. For me, painting is just having fun and FINDING my way, but still… Enjoy!)
I’ve always liked time-lapsed videos of artists painting or sculpting. I, of course, have NO patience to try to do this myself since many times when I’m doing a painting I make mistakes, palette knife off half the oil and even scrap the whole thing and start over if I’m not happy with the direction. (And honestly, who likes looking at the back of my head!) But I’m FORCING myself to at least document every step of this painting for my client. This is only a day into the painting and we have a ways to go, but hopefully I’ll have a few more “process” posts as we go along.
P.S. You have no idea how hard it is to stop yourself and photograph your progress. Once you get going, it really is hard to break in and say, “WHOA! HEY! This is a photo op!” especially when you are booking along. But here it is so far with some glorious commentary and a slideshow at the bottom.
First I transfer my image onto the canvas, either freehand, grid or projection, since I’m bad at perspective I use a huge yardstick to get my lines in somewhat straight.
Now I start masking off some of the more important foreground elements, mostly so I don’t lose those lines.
Here I have a thin layer of some clear liquid on the background so I can move this paint a little easier. It’s better than having a dry canvas.
Hey! We’re painting! My light source is in the lower left so I’m starting with a warm yellow and it will gradually move into some beige/blue.
A little more pink/brown.
And then I finish off the corner.
Then I start working in some of the blue but not too much contrast. The sky is very secondary, so I want it to push back from the foreground.
Now I remove some of my masking and start blocking/layering in my background elements, the city scape in the background and some of the initial shadows.
Now I start playing with the bridge shadows and elements, This again is just to get the flow of building. Getting used to the shapes.
I work on the walkway a little bit.
Now I go back to the sky and work on the clouds, I need these in there before I start on the guidewires.
Now I start tackling the structure a little more.
I know I want a high contrast on the bridge although I don’t know how much, here I start experimenting with texture and color.
I’ve started finding my color mixtures, I know I’ll need to block in a darker mix before I can highlight with details.
I have a good handle on the first layer of the arches, I’ll need a slight dry on this before I start the second layer.
I also layout the walkway and at this point I stop here since I have kids and I can only sneak in a few hours at a time!
