Pink Hydrangea, 20″ x 16″ UART 320

Drawing

Initial sketch of figure

Underpainting prior to alcohol

Today I finished my fourth street scene from Dupont Circle. I chose this photo because I liked the hydrangea and the shadows on the sidewalk.  However, there was no figure in it and I decided it really needed one.  So I used a reference shot of a woman I saw the same day, added a hat to her right hand and thought that might work.

My primary problem with adding figures that aren’t there is getting the proportions right. I decided that the 2″ figure I’d drawn would be about right for the painting.  However, I realized that in the drawing, she is heading to the right and I had to have her going straight down the sidewalk. As much as I liked the hat, I decided it was a little too much and not necessary.

I did another somewhat arbitrary underpainting. However, I used green under the reads and a light orange under the light warm greenish building at far right.  I decided not to touch the figure.  I did the same brush down with alcohol, avoiding the figure, but forgot to film it!  Sorry.  But you’ve seen enough of these.

I have two competing centers of interest in this painting–the shadows and bush and the figure.  Once you put a figure in, that’s it!   But I named it for the hydrangea and I think it makes a pretty strong statement, encroaching on the side walk as it does.

For the sidewalk, I layered a number of warm and cool colors of the same value, ending with warm in the foreground.  The shadows were begun with one purple but then I added some darker grayed violet and a lighter warm brown.  I felt that the neutral helped soften the effect of the violet.  It’s still pretty strong though.

The background and cars were a challenge.  I basically just layered in some colors for the background (at end of street) but had to do a lot of tinkering to get the cars looking right.  Used a pink on the ones in sunlight to tie the color to the flowers and sidewalk.  Made the bag red to help connect that to the red brick building.

I’ve enjoyed doing this series.  I have one more, probably more difficult painting to do of the Women’s National Democratic Club building, then I think it will be time for some straight landscape!