Souk Al Medina - stage 2

 To finish the underpainting I have roughly painted in a semi transparent desaturated blue wash over all cool areas and left it off the areas of warm light. This now gives me a better idea of the structure of the painting and can now adjust accordingly for the fine tuning, for instance there is currently too much warm area which I will adjust as I go through the painting.

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Permanent Orange, Zinc White and Warm White.

Souk Al Medina - stage 1

 OK I'm back to painting after a lay off for about ten days during which I did interesting things like getting my tax books ready....

I think it's just as well that I had that break as I have realised that IX isn't that far away and I need to get some paintings done to take there. In a way I'm a victim of my own recent success as many of the paintings I would have taken are already sold so I have a potential dilemma of marking some upcoming paintings as not for sale so that I can take them to IX - is this a mistake and should always sell when somebody wants to buy it?....

It is also time to abandon for the moment the series that I was working on, I can come back to that afterwards and indeed the other series that I have in mind, "The Golden Hour".

This is the initial tonal underpainting for an Orientalist scene called "Souk Al Medina" and is loosely based on a Midjourney piece. It's my usual mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

A Sacred Space and The Gathering sold

A Sacred Place

 "A Sacred Space" and "The Gathering" have just sold to a buyer in the UK. Both oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

I am taking a break from painting for a bit and get on with other things like tax etc. I think I need time to recharge batteries...

The Gathering

 

Galata

 The fourth in my series "Into The Sun" all of which so far have been challenging for different reasons. Galata is a district of Istanbul with the Galata Bridge and in the distance the Galata Tower and if memory serves me well is a university district. This one has been challenging because I started painting it with only an approximate idea of how I wanted it to look -  sometimes this approach works out and I end up with something new and different... in this case it just meant it took a long time to paint because I had to keep making decisions as I went along. Originally I saw it as a much simpler image with the mosque dark against a simple background and was happy with the general composition but as I started painting it became obvious that I had to put more detail and definition into the background which in turn meant that the foreground would have to have more too. This led to me painting in far more finicky detail than I intended. I'm relatively happy with it but....

Based on a yellow/violet colour complementary with an obvious use of the Rule Of Thirds in the composition. Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Galata - stage 6

 Well I've learned quite a lot from this one, not quite sure what but one thing is for sure I will try avoid all this finicky detail next time for a painting so small (which because of it's size I can't charge for the time it took to paint it). I have painted in all the background so that it's ready to knock back where it needs it tomorrow when I will paint the foreground mosque. I saw this as quite a simple picture but because I hadn't thought through the lighting when it was all drawn up it has taken much longer than I wanted to paint it. This series generally has been a struggle.... hopefully I learn a lot from it.

Galata - stage 5

 Finally worked out how I should paint the foreground behind the mosque. Originally I saw it in my mind as light as the background with the mosque dark against it. Then I realised that wouldn't work so I thought that it should be dark near to the darkness of the mosque but then I saw that wouldn't work either.... I have finally settled on lots of highlights hitting the buildings etc in front of the mosque and I can still have the mosque quite dark against it.

I have a funeral to go to tomorrow so I won't be able to finish this until the weekend.

Galata - stage 4

 I don't know quite why this painting is proving difficult but progress is quite slow as I have to keep stopping and working out what/how I am going to paint each section. Hopefully I am learning useful lessons for the next ones in the series. Still not finished the background but have made a rough start on the foreground in the hope that this helps my decisions about the background...

Galata - stage 3

 I hadn't really thought through exactly how I was going to paint the water and sun reflection so I'm taking it slowly at the moment and leaving it here until tomorrow's breakfast coffee when I will make decisions as how to proceed.

Galata - stage 2

 First colour pass on the background, kind of feeling my way along at the moment. 

Colours used: Ultramarine Violet, Permanent Orange, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Lake Deep, Cadmium yellow Light, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Galata - stage 1

 This is the tonal underpainting for the next in my "Into The Sun" series called "Galata" which is the name of the bridge and distant tower in Istanbul. This one is a bit different in that the sun won't be seen much but the reflection in the water will be the light source. I have changed my idea a bit already as I was just going to have the foreground mosque in blue shadow but it didn't look right so I have extended the desaturated blue wash to the near side of the water.

Painted using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush followed by a wash of Phthalocyanine Blue and Permanent Orange thinned with liquin and applied with a rag.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Smoke City

 I abandoned "Sun City" as I thought that it would be average at best so saw little point in finishing it - composition and content problems.

This is therefore the third in my "Into The Sun" series, a series that I am struggling with a bit as I adjust what I learned about nocturnes to daylight paintings. This one has also taken a long time to finish due to quite a lot of daytime social activity last week. I think this is better and has a vague cyberpunk vibe to it. All this series will be about looking into the bright light source of the sun. This one is loosely based on a few different Midjourney pieces one of which can be seen at the end of this post.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Midjourney

 

Smoke City - stage 6

 If nothing else I have learnt a lot from painting this in terms of transferring how I paint nocturnes to daylight paintings.... I need to readjust values. This one has been slow going for two reasons, first I have had a lot of daytime social activity this past week and secondly I have had to keep readjusting values which together with all the building detail has somewhat slowed me down. 

I just have the building at left and the foreground to paint and the area of buildings that recede into the bright sun. Could I get this all done tomorrow? God I hope so!

Smoke City - stage 5

 Finally managed to get a few painting hours in today after five days of social stuff going on. I'm working from the edges towards the light, today working on the buildings on the right.