(Subway) Girders and Cans

Subway Girders – view through the F train window coming into the Smith 9th Street Station – watercolor on 300# Arches 

Once again I started this painting with a grisaille (a gray value study). Which you can see below:

I then dragged a large soft brush with clean water down the paper from the top to the bottom to spread some of the paint around.  This is slightly different than what I did in previous paintings seen here and here where I waited for the grisaille to dry and then splashed it with clean water followed by very diluted paynes gray and very diluted raw sienna.  The dragging of the water gives the painting a look of grittiness since this view is through a subway window.  To me it also adds a feeling of movement.

I then went back in and added local color.  Some green and rust to the girders and some more paynes gray to re-establish some darks and details.

Finally I finished it with a little more detail to the paynes gray girders, local color and I added a raw sienna sky.   Cause really, wouldn’t a regular old blue sky just be boring in this painting?

On another note the NYC Canstruction exhibit is going on right now in the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center.

Canstruction Annual Competition 

Exhibit Dates:
Begins: November 6, 2014
Ends: November 20, 2014

Exhibit Location:The Winter Garden and Lobby of 250 Vesey Street at Brookfield Place (formerly known as World Financial Center), New York, NY 10281

These are cool and fun with all the canned food going to the needy after the exhibit is over.   You can also donate canned food when you visit the exhibit.   How clever and creative are the people who put these together?