"Taxi" Painting: Session 4

We flew home from Seattle early this morning, and were back in SF by late morning. Last week, I had scheduled a painting class with Dean for this afternoon, and I'm so glad I was able to make it. I knew I would need something to ground me from the moving craziness of the week, and this was just what I needed.

Lots of interesting developments in the Taxi painting today! I knew that I needed to work on the middle section of the canvas, which had the other cars. I brought my surface with me today so I could zoom in on the original photos and have more information.

When I first started this painting, I asked Miguel (who took this photo and posted it on Instagram) if he would mind sending me his original photo. He sent both the original photo as well as the original instagram that he took. (I had taken his instagram photo, and recropped it for the composition of this painting.)

So, here's the series of photos/instagrams:


Miguel's original Instagram


My cropped instagram of Miguel's instagram (are you following this?)

Now, here's where it gets interesting:

When I opened Miguel's original photo (pre-Instagram, so not cropped or filtered), here's what I saw:


Miguel's original photo

I hadn't seen that blue truck on the left before, since it had been cropped out of Miguel's instagram shot. Both Dean and I agreed that the truck would make a really nice addition to the composition of the painting. I had originally planned to show three cars on the left side, but this truck was so much more interesting: it was coming at a different angle, parallel to the taxi, so it balanced out the composition. It was also a nice color, and this painting could use some extra colors.

So, here's where we ended up:


"Taxi" painting, Session Four

I really like the addition of the blue truck. It's one of my favorite parts now.

I also worked on several other areas today. Most notably, I repainted the "FWY" painted on the street, and added the light reflections on it as well. The letters were tough, as I had to make sure that they were all at the correct angle. Speaking of, Dean and I also checked the angles on the rest of the painting by recreating the vanishing point, and taking a straight edge to all the angled lines. Always good to double check, because they tend to shift around a bit.

Let's see, I also darkened the street color, and worked on the median in the middle of the street. The color is better but still a little off.

Finally, I added a little bit of loose detail in the background: the off ramp, signs and buildings in the distance, etc., It helps with the depth, I think.

Dean thinks I'll be done with this painting after the next session. We'll see.... My next painting session is in a week.