Street Life II, 12" x 8", Mixed media on Canvas board, 2008

This is my entry into this weeks Different Strokes from Different Folks by Karin Jurick.




This was quite a challenge because the reference picture was posted upside down- this was to help us zero into shapes and the overall composition as against painting unnecessary details at the start.

I painted the whole scene without the 2 figures, upside down, as you can see below. It was a good way of painting, I almost stopped it here, as I felt it would pass for a solid abstract piece.




But then I really wanted to continue on my last weeks entry on Street workers, and this is the second in the series. For all the explanation about why I am painting these scenes you can read last weeks entry on this blog. So I turned my painting the right way round to finish off with the figures added.

I have used Acrylic mainly to paint 80% of the picture, then I have introduced Biro and coloured pencil for some details and some sensitive bits that my impatience would not allow me to do with brush and acrylic.

Below are some rough studies of the figures I did in my sketch pad before adding them and the painting without the walking figure and the first block-in.