The completed "Market Street" painting

"Market Street"
2014
oil on canvas
36 x 24 inches

At last! I completed my Market Street oil painting last night. Actually, I had made a few last adjustments last night, but wasn't sure if it was actually done until this morning when I could see it in the natural light. :)

This one was a bit of a doozy. I started it in mid-February, worked on it through late March, did a little more work on it in mid-May, took a break on it while I worked on and finished the Lavender Field painting then started up on it again in late August. I also finished the Mission Santa Clara painting in San Francisco, and worked on my little Beach Study in between.

This was the most detailed cityscape I've taken on yet, and it was a night scene as well. It was a challenge for sure, but I'm really glad I persevered! :) There were all kinds of angles and perspectives that had to be right, plus the trickery of color in a night scene. I'm really proud of how it turned out, but admit, I may take a break from cityscapes for a bit. :)

Here are some of the photos that I took during the process of painting it. I always like to see the evolution of a painting in one post:


the original photo


sketched out on the primed canvas


blocking in the colors


starting to get some detail on the bus and buildings


more details, especially on front left building


brightened/lightened the sky and street with a lighter blue


decided that the blue was too light and darkened the street and made the sky more grey


This was after having taken a long break to work on other paintings. When I came back to this painting, I really worked carefully on making sure the lines for the windows on the left building were correct. This shows the corrected horizontal lines. Makes a huge difference from the previous photo.


Adding the vertical beams


...and the window panes. I think the building on the left looks much improved, and the perspective reads correctly now


I darkened the building on the left with a glaze, removed the bus stop, made the sky a dark blue (again), and worked on the street and street lamps.


I continued work on the street lamps, and reworked the trolley car in the center of the painting


I added more color in the headlights and reflections of the cars


The finished piece: I added more warm colors and darkened parts of the street


detail

Funny - the process doesn't seem nearly as long or complicated when it's all laid out here in one place. :)