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March, Aerin, 2020.

24"x36", acrylic on canvas.

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I like to take photos of my paintings at the end of every session (if I remember to). These two photos show the difference between two sessions. Sometimes I can get more done, sometimes less. One of the biggest things that slows me down is dry time. With the way I put down big areas of one color means that I'll have big chunks of the painting I can't touch for sometimes as much as an hour. 

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These photos also show the way I'll work through the layers of wash. Sometimes I don't start with the washes until I have everything else down. Sometimes, though, I'll start the washes earlier so I can map out where things go and keep it all cohesive. For example, I put down shadows earlier on, in order to make it clear where the sidewalk is so that I can place the streetlights correctly.

A photograph of an unfinished painting. There is a purple sky with a diagonal line of trees leading fron the top left side to the middle of the right side. The trees have purple snow in their branches. There is a purple diagonal line from the middle right to the bottom left side. The right bottom corner is dark grey.
A photograph of an unfinished painting. There is a purple sky with a diagonal line of trees leading fron the top left side to the middle of the right side. The trees have purple snow in their branches. In front of the trees there is a line of light grey, unfinihsed light poles. There is a purple diagonal line representing a sidewalk from the middle right to the bottom left side. The sidewalk has dark blue shadows on it which indicate where the edges of the sidewalk are, as well as indicating piles of snow. The bottom right corner is dark grey with bits of purple snow on top.

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This piece was inspired by a road I saw while driving to a hockey game back in 2019. It's one of the earlier pieces I made, so I was still developing my sense of perspective. I made several thumbnails to try to sort it out, and I realized that part of my problem was that I was trying to have the vanishing point be off to the right. Usually I would keep the perspective centered to keep it simple.  

A photo of pencil sketches in a notebook. There are two boxes, and they both depict variations of the same image. The image is a sketchy rendition of streetlight and a sidewalk which recedes into the background.
A photo of pencil sketches of streetlights and a sidewalk. There are 3 boxes which all contain variations of the same image. The images have perspective lines drawn on top of them. Unrelated to the sketches, there are some notes written in the sketchbook which read, "Thrones, eyed wheels".
A photograph of an unfinished painting with a digital drawing on top of it. The painting depicts streetlights and a sidewalk. The sky is purple, and there is a line of trees going from the left side and shrinking into the distance at the right side. In front of the trees there is a line of streetlights with a snow covered sidewalk beneath them. The digital drawing addes orange cones coming down from the streetights.

Digital studies really are a vital tool for me. For this one, I was having trouble figuring out where the light splashes would fall. The more of these paintings I did, the easier it was for me to intuitively feel where the light would fall and how the perspective should look. I really had to put the work in to develop that sense though. 

Although paint is pretty easy to cover up if you make a mistake, it can be pretty time consuming so I make my best effort to never have to redo a part of a painting. Digital stuff allows me to mess around and try new things all without affecting the actual painting. Digital tools also let me do things like make perfect ellipses, which is significantly more difficult to do by hand.

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