October 18th, 2017

Painting an Urban Landscape in Oils

   On the easel next is another large 3x5ft painting of my favorite street corner in Kamloops, 4th and Victoria. This drawing took 2 full days and you can probably see why! My theory is 'Get it right and then get Loose!' Perspective is imperative when doing a city landscape. I composed this piece first through my camera lens. I looked for light first and foremost and then balance then lines that can lead the eye in an around the painting. The hotel on the left along with the shadow are great elements to anchor this painting. The cars on the right stop your eye from running off the canvas and adds some interesting shapes. Details like people are drawn last which come from my 'People' file. I often use a zoom lens to take photos of people walking etc so I can use them later in paintings (hope they don't mind!).
    I drew a graph on to the canvas and photo then used  pencil to draw it and then went over all the main lines needed with a small paintbrush and Raw Umber. At this point because I've spent the time to 'get it right' I'm fully confident and ready to enjoy the painting process.
     I'm always excited to paint this type of subject matter because of the story element in it! You can see in the photo there is lots of glowing light and beautiful colours  that's going to make this painting really fun to paint.