The Somnambulist - stage 1

 A terrible photo of the underpainting stage of the next in my series "The Sleeping City". This is really stage 2 but I didn't get a photo of the tonal underpainting stage so this will have to do. Essentially I have painted some rough colour over the underpainting just to make a start so that it will be dry for tomorrow to work on. I want a dreamlike feel to this one to go with the title...

Colours used so far: Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Viridian, Neutral Grey No 5, Dioxazine Purple, Quinacridone Red, Burnt Sienna, Zinc White and Warm White.

Wrong Side Of The Tracks

 This is the third in my "The Sleeping City" series and the first in a few upcoming paintings that will be about pools of light within areas of shadow. Here we have a run down part of town with low rise buildings in the foreground behind which are the skyscrapers of the more affluent Downtown which is either separated from this side of town by a river or more in keeping with the title, railway tracks.

Based on a yellow/violet colour complementary with the violets fairly desaturated. As in all my paintings I want them to look like a painting and try and incorporate visible brushmarks and try to avoid the comments I used to get "it looks like a photograph". I 'm trying to walk that tricky line between realism and painterly...

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

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

Wrong Side Of The Tracks - stage 4

 Worked on the background but still not quite happy with the horizon of foreground buildings and will have a final faff with them tomorrow. I also made a start on the foreground buildings and the pool of light at the front.

New colours used: Magenta Violet, Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Light and Lead Tin Yellow Lemon.

Bar & Grill sold

 With the paint barely dry "Bar & Grill" has just sold to a buyer in the US that has about three of mine already. The third in my current series "The Sleeping City". 

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

Wrong Side Of The Tracks - stage 3

 First colour pass on the background and I'm trying to keep it desaturated so that the lit area will pop nicely. I quite liked the overall colour of the previous stage and might well work within that colour range on another in this series.

Colours used so far: Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Pale Violet, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Amethyst, Chrome Green and Warm White.

Wrong Side Of The Tracks - stage 2

 I first gave it a wash of transparent Ultramarine Violet apart from the lit area in front of the building. I then mixed a darker base colour of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple and started blocking in some tone. I then gave the lit area a very light wash of Yellow Lake Deep thinned with a lot of Liquin. It's now ready for the opaque colour tomorrow.

The Wrong Side Of The Tracks - stage 1

 This is the third in my "The Sleeping City" series and possibly the first in a number of paintings that will be about pools of light in areas of shadows. Here we have a run down section of town with low rise buildings behind which are the skyscrapers of the much more affluent downtown part of town which is either separated from the other by a river or in keeping with the title, railway tracks. There is still the obvious Edward Hopper influence in here but maybe this one won't have the slightly desolate feel of the earlier painting "Bar & Grill".

This the initial tonal underpainting stage using my usual 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"