Charlotte Skyline In Progress (Adding Detail 1)

Once I had the first layers of paint down on my acrylic-on-canvas triptych, it was time to start adding more details.

But first, I wanted to do a bit more work on the sky, adding some lighter oranges, yellows, and purples to give it a nice sunset-y look. I used gel matte medium mixed into the paint to give it a translucent quality, so that the initial sky layers could still be seen through the paint. Then, I also added in some darker red/purples, when I thought the sky was looking too light.

Mixing different paints to get an orange color for the sky

Adding gel matte medium

Adding a layer of orange to the sky

Adding layers of yellow to the sky

A close up of the yellow layer

Adding some light purple/pink to the sky

Adding back in some darker red/purple shades

Then I started work on the buildings, starting with a skyscraper on the middle panel. When necessary, I darkened the main building color to better stand out against the sunset sky. I also added in lots of window details.

Using a paper plate as a paint palette

The first skyscraper, finished

Because the second skyscraper was on two different panels (mostly the middle panel, but with a little strip on the left most panel as well), I had to make sure to paint both at the same time, to line up the windows and make sure the colors were consistent throughout the building.

Starting the second skyscraper

Painting windows - even on the sides of the canvas

The second skyscraper finished

The third skyscraper had some challenges with the domed section of the roof, as well as some other architectural details at the top.

The finished third skyscraper

The first three skyscrapers together

I used different methods for different skyscrapers as I went along. Sometimes I painted in all the windows of one color first, then the windows of a different color, and then went through and fixed the lines/straightened the windows with the main building color. Other times I did this line by line instead of all at once.

For this fourth skyscraper, I put in all the windows first, then cleared up the lines and made everything crisper with a tiny paintbrush and paint the color of the main building background.

Roughing in the windows

Tidying it up

Don't forget the little building in the background!

The fifth skyscraper took awhile because it had lots of teeny tiny windows - much tinier than the windows on the other buildings I'd done so far. First, I decided to change the color of the building from the gray color I had it painted originally to more of a tan color. Then, I added in the details.

Making the building tan/brown

Adding in lots of tiny windows!

I'm enjoying this painting both for the scale and the subject matter. Very large works and architecture/human-made urbanscapes are not something I normally do - but it's nice to do something different every once in awhile. The geometric detail of the buildings is a nice change of pace from the organic/natural lines of most of my recent floral work.

More step-by-step in progress photos to come next week!