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Monday, August 26, 2013

The Painting Process: The Kennedy Center

After finishing a 12"x36" nighttime scene of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC,  I realized that I cataloged a few pictures of it from start to finish, so I thought I would walk you through the process from start to finish in the next few shots.


First, I start with the base, which in this case was blue.  Call it a Shark Week inspiration, but this nighttime scene really captivated me when I saw a picture of it, so I figured I would give it a shot!  Note the two different colors, lighter up top and darker below.  The spot where the color changes is the horizon line, and everything above represents the sky, and everything below is the base for the buildings and water.  The reason for this area being darker is that reflection on water always appears darker than what it is actually reflecting.


Mid-process, putting in the base layer of lights, and beginning to fill in with more detail.  You can see here that besides the Kennedy Center building itself, there are few highlights and no detail in the buildings.  This is just basically to fill in the location of the buildings and the lights, and once this is dry, the detail can be added.  Note there is no reflection in the water yet or foliage in the foreground.  


Finished product!  You can see now that there is more detail in the buildings, and last but not least, the reflection of the water.  In addition, I added highlights to the lights, making them more colorful and brighter, especially in the traffic blur in the lower left hand corner.  Voila!

I hope you are having a wonderful Monday and that you enjoyed the process from start to finish!  See you next Monday!

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