Thursday Jan 25th 2024 – 1pm-3pm EST
Something at the other end of the value scale this week. Last week we were at the top of the value scale and this week we’re mainly in the darker half. Street scenes are challenging and I find that working a little smaller can help. Maybe 9×12 or even 8×10. I’ll be working on this over the weekend and I’ll mail early next week with an updated recommendation (Edit: 8×10 is a good size.)
Please do the drawing ahead of time as usual.
(All session materials are linked off the main page)
Materials:
- Student paper for mixing color swatches
- 100% cotton paper for the full painting (I’ll probably be using 9″x12″)
- Value scale (See the Useful Tools page)
- Pencil/Paint/Palette/Water/Paper towels/masking tape
- Brushes: A larger brush for the washes. A slightly smaller (10 or 12) for the face and later details.
- Colors: Cobalt blue, Ultramarine, Burnt sienna, Vermillion/napthol/cad red (orangey red), Cad lemon/hansa yellow (greenish yellow), yellow ochre, black.
- I find a porcelain dish useful for subjects like this. We’ll be doing a lot of dark washes which take a lot of paint. Mixing up a big batch in a separate container helps a lot. Mine is about 3″ square and is actually a dipping sauce dish from Crate and Barrel.
- Masking fluid/frisket film
You may want to mask the windows either with masking fluid or (my preference) frisket film. It seems they don’t sell the exact thing I use any more but this looks very similar
Reference Photo (click to enlarge and right click to download)
Reference Photo with grid
This is the full wide version of the reference.
My first study version (this is a bigger version before I decided to crop). I’ve also altered the colors slightly as I wasn’t a fan of the blue. Everything now is slightly greener.
This is really a study. I often find I need to work 3 or 4 versions of scenes like these before I get something I’m happy with.
8″x10″ version
Drawing Video:
The Drawing:
Class Video:
Sorry – forgot to switch the comments on again. This was from Martha
I am not sure if the first message got thru or not. I lost my shape of the car on the left and wondered how I could fix it. Well I lifted the the color and repainted, not perfect but it will do. First fog painting and probably would not have tried it if it had not been on the schedule HAHA A new learning experience for me. A very good value study for me. Thanks Michele
Looks great Martha. And fantastic for a first go.
This was really challenging, and I went off the rails after the 2nd wash! So I took a damp sponge to the whole thing and started over (thus the streaky sky). There are issues with most every aspect of this attempt, but I learned *a lot*!
So I tried this twice more with masking fluid to protect some of the lightest lights – but my masking fluid fused to my paper – so not sure if it was just old – as I know to avoid heat with masking fluid – anyway – back to the non-masking fluid method.
I will try it in indigo and maybe Paynes Grey – or even black as that might work well too
All feedback welcome! Roll on the basset hound
This was quite challenging! I will definitely be trying this one again. I think there is much room to improve. I continue to learn new things as I paint your demos. Thank you!