Hi everybody and a Happy New Year to all!
This shows the progression of a page I
did for The Virtual Paintout for January 2015 where
the theme for the entire month is Philadelphia.
We can upload up to 3 on the site each month
and this month I may only do one as I have
some other exciting classes to attend.
Below is the initial pencil sketch done from a
Google Street view I found...that I liked
so many of the details and the two boys
on the steps....I darken the work to
upload so you can see it much better...but it
was quite light.
the next photo show the inking done and that is
also darkened...and not as easy to see as the
scan is. I included the pen which I like
for some work but it turned out it was too thin
for this one and I went over the lines in the end with my
favorite Uniball Vision waterproof fine pen.,,,it
gave me the punch I wanted. Also I took
this whole work very slowly and you see some of the
notes I made of observations I wanted to
keep in mind. I don't usually do this and thought
it helped me a lot.
Here is the final work done in tube watercolors
using waterbrushes for most of it..This street
was tree lined and some people had plants
under the windows etc. This place
may have seeds started in the little
plot by the steps. The reflections were from
similar houses across the street and trees.
Since this is a small work, about
8 by 5 inches, I left out the coffee cup and
can of soda between the boys...
As I worked on this the song
The Streets of Philadelphia played
over and over in my head and other
thoughts combined to make this a statement
for me on the ones we knew and lost through
the years to the streets or elsewhere---each with
poignant memories and the hope that
all was as it had to be....
