City Slick

City Slick, WIP 12 x 24 inches, oil on linen

Continuing with San Francisco imagery. The wet weather in Tahoe a few weeks back inspired me to try a rainy cityscape. I just pulled out a rainy photo from my library, and composed this picture. Moved a few cars, gave it heavier atmosphere.

This, obviously is a blatant one point perspective set up, which makes drawing a hell of a lot easier than a two point. I wanted to focus on other tricky issues like working with diffused light, and abstraction by linking shapes, so that I didn't want to complicate the matter by introducing a second vanishing point, or one off the canvas. Nothing wrong with more complex perspectives, but I had specific objectives and didn't want to fight unnecessary battles.

During the workshop, someone asked me, "how do you paint rain?" And I answered, "I don't." I wasn't being a smartass, actually. I explained that you can paint evidences of rain, like reflections on flat surfaces, cooler temperatures, heavy atmospheric perspective, splashing water, rings on surfaces, and let's not forget, people with umbrellas! But I don't actually paint rain drops or needles coming down. I know some artists do that, but I've yet to see one done well. It just looks hoaky to me.

Actually, I'm not that interested in depiction of rain, as much as the overall mood created by rainy days. If I can get that in a painting, I couldn't care less if it looked like it was raining, or simply overcast. Unless of course rain was somehow central to my concept. Then I'd probably end up with a more "realistic" painting because I don't know how else to do it.

I have more cityscapes to show you soon~