Here’s the latest on my map inspired by Corona Heights Park in San Francisco, just a block away from home.
I’ve just finished painting in the first layer of shadows—over a month of work! It’s probably not typical to start out with the darks like this, but it means I can begin the painting process without having to lighten up the pencil sketch first. The lines would show through color washes much more easily. Now that the dark areas at least are blocked out, when I move on to color I can fade the still-visible lines (with a kneaded eraser) without losing as much information.
Also I find it helps to start off with one unifying base layer over the whole work—these shadows are all the same tone, which I mix from scratch. This particular mix is easy to bend in different directions when the color gets added, while keeping some of that overall unity. Using black straight from the tube doesn’t seem to work as well for this.
So stay tuned for the color! The photomontage version below is the guide, but of course the goal isn’t to reproduce it (even if that were possible). I’m planning to keep the time-lapse going till the work is all done—I think it’ll be for this work only (the setup is a bit of an ordeal), but I’m curious to know if you find it illuminating….
-Darren
