A Sidestreet In Madurai - stages 1 - 3

Burnt Sienna "drawing"

Tonal underpainting

These are the first two days work on a step-by-step I am going to post of the second painting I am working on from reference taken on my recent, somewhat truncated visit to Cochin and Madurai in October 2012. It demonstrates my current way of working that now dispenses with a preliminary charcoal drawing and instead starts with a rough but relatively accurate "drawing" painted with in this case Burnt Sienna which is quickly followed by a tonal underpainting in the same colour for the first days' session. The third picture shows it at the end of day two in which I have roughly put in a first layer of colour that helps me to get an overall idea of how the colour is going to work, particularly as to how the atmosphere is to develop. The old central part of Madurai around the main temple is a chaotic and colourful experience that I want to get across in the painting. My main concern is how to integrate the box-like shrine in the left foreground with the rest of the picture which is compositionally a potential problem. 
 

First layer of colour