Long overdue for a post. Been working a lot on drawings (animals), finishing the Lines & Blossoms piece, and started this new diptych.
Reference photo was taken by me a couple years ago. It’s an amazing vantage point from the Marin headlands looking back towards the city. Breathtaking!
This is my first true diptych, as well as my first painting on wood. The panels are small (5″x7″) and pre-treated. Below is the rough drawing outline, which I had practiced in my sketch book a couple times prior. What worked best for me, which wasn’t the way I first tried to do it, was to draw from the horizon/back of the composition “forward” to the bridge and foreground. It was much, much easier to get the angle and proportion of the GG bridge with the city roughed into the background for reference points.
This first session was short by my standards, perhaps a couple of hours. It moved quickly because of the small size and the color mixes came together faster than usual. The details will come in the next session, but I think getting the lighting on the cityscape is going to be tricky but critical to ensure the piece has the right depth.
Art Bern 