Five and nine
I know this is a strange title, but it’s easy to figure out why I named it that. I am exploring my new idea with urban skate boarders some more. I have had some great comments for some of these works and even sold one in a gallery setting at this year’s Higbee 6 x 6 exhibition. http://randyhigbeegallery.blogspot.com/search/label/6×6%20Show
I also like the long format, I think it’s always good to try and do new things. The format isn’t really all that new, but I think it works really well with an off-beat subject matter like this. I also like that I have found a way to combine my beloved taxis and the skaters! They do live in the same environment after all, and I am wondering now why didn’t think about this before!
As for the painting process, I started with a grey wash in the sky, just to take away the white of the paper. After that I painted an ‘underwash’ for all the buildings and into the foreground fairly strong. The goal is to finish the foreground in the first wash, which usually never works out. It is easy to be too light, since it is one of the first things we’re painting and we only have the white of the paper to compare it to…
Colors I used were Cobalt blue, cobalt violet, yellow ochre, ultra violet and cobalt turquoise and, believe it or not, some cad yellow and cad red. I made sure I used the most toxic colors available…ok, bad joke…. On a serious note, I made sure most of the pigment is mixing itself on the paper and took great care not to create too many hard edges. That’s one of the more challenging things to do as a watercolorist, in my humble opinion.
Thank you for looking, I sure will do more of these…here’s a detail shot, the guy in the middle is connecting both sides of the street with his pose, I think that works quite well!
Fabulous! I love the format. It works perfectly for that scene.
thank you for the nice comment, Debbie!
Very nice. I was on 57th Street near 5th Ave one day when a young woman in a tutu and pointe shoes was posing in the middle of the street for some kind of shoot – maybe something for NYC Ballet, not sure. I would have loved to have a painting of that moment!
Do you ever paint in the park or do you just stick to street scenes?
Well, I wish I could go there and paint in NYC! I live on the left coast, but thanks for sharing your story! Painting in the park is def something I wanna do one day..
Wonderful watercolor work. Great attention to color and design
thanks for that, Gary – hope you’ll visit again! All the best
Another wonderful painting. I do like the format very much. You must come to NY and paint!
another one! they really animate the scene, added a ton of interest. the cars and streets keep getting better and better and better, you’re on fire Frank!
thanks so much, Nick…really hope you’re right..been putting a lot of work into all this, as you know. Thanks for visiting my blog