Stamboul Moon

 The sixth in my "Arabian Night" series... and yes I know this is Turkey not Arabia! This one was going to be a campfire and tents in the desert but somehow it changed into a view of Istanbul at night. This series has really settled on a theme of moonlit nocturnes which is fine by me as I enjoy painting them. This will probably be the last but one in the series but you never know I might get some more ideas...

This is based around an old postcard view of the Eminonu district of Istanbul with the Yeni Cami mosque in the background, I have been told by a Turkish friend that this area looks nothing like this now. I was originally thinking of having a fire in the city at bottom right but could think of no good reason for it being there so I changed it to a glow from some street lighting... or maybe there is something going on there...

Based on a desaturated orange/blue colour complementary, oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

Stamboul Moon - stage 4

 I have now painted in all the buildings some of which will be taken back a bit tomorrow and have also roughed in the water ready for tomorrow's session during which I may be able to finish the painting. I also need to decide over tomorrow's breakfast coffee how I'm going to paint the water, I could go for the more painterly way of doing it as it is now or put in wavelets etc with wet reflections....

Stamboul Moon - stage 3

 OK finally got a title for it... The sky is pretty much finished now and I have made a tentative start on the buildings which I hope to finish tomorrow. Originally I saw the buildings pretty much as silhouettes against the sky but I have decided to give them a bit more form by picking out some details on the architecture. Still not quite sure what to do with the light area at the right - I think a fire is too dramatic so it might just be a glow from some lights in the street.

Arabian Night 6 - stage 2

 Still untitled, just can't think of one at the moment.

Anyway, this is the first colour pass on the sky over an initial desaturated blue transparent glaze that I washed across most of the painting apart from where the moon is. I'm trying a different moonlit sky on this one, hopefully it works, I need to stop now as I need to look at it with fresh eyes in the morning to see how/where it's going.

Colours used so far: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Turquoise, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange and Warm Light Yellow.

Arabian Night 6 - stage 1

 Haven't got a title for this one yet.... I fancy having a fire at bottom right, but can't think of a good reason for it to be there yet. I think I'll have a good think about this over tomorrow's breakfast coffee....

This is number six in this series of nocturnes and is of course of Istanbul, not Arabia which it strictly should be if the series is called "Arabian Night"....

This is the initial tonal underpainting stage using my ususl mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and flat brush.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Ruins of Qalat Qadim

 Deep in the Arabian Desert lie the ruins of Qalat Qadim, once an important stopping off point on one of the Silk Roads across the forbidding and desolate desert. But with better routes being found to transport the silks and spices to Europe it fell on hard times and was eventually abandoned and left to the harsh sands and rocks of the desert. It still provides shelter to the occasional passing nomad whose fire can be seen within the crumbling walls of an outlying building....

...well that's what somebody told me once... or did I imagine it?

The fifth in my "Arabian Night" series it is loosely based on a Midjourney piece shown below in this post but really I have just used the basic architecture and placed it within the scene I had visualised earlier which is really focused on the sky. It is again based on a red/orange - green/blue colour complementary but kept fairly desaturated in line with how I am currently working.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

Midjourney

The Ruins of Qalat Qadim - stage 4

 I finished off the sky and then painted the first colour pass on the background landscape. Looking at it in the afternoon light in my studio and I think the darks need to be darker but I can judge that better when I paint in the darks in the foreground...