Saturday, August 17, 2013

“On a Hongkong Street" --- Sold

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This is a large painting, 30" x 40". I spent a week to do it.

No, I am just kidding. This one is only 5" x 7". I did this one to see if I can paint a super busy scene on a very small surface. The reference photo was shot in HongKong last December. It was very busy street, full of people, cars, and junks whoever knows. It challenges me to see if I can make a painting out of it. If you paint plein air, you must have been into similar situation. In front of your eyes, there is so much going on. You are wondering how is possible to make a painting out of this mess. My approach to simplify the scene is closing one eye and squint really really hard the other eye, then you get the basic light pattern. Use this basic pattern to generate your composition, and make sure the perspective is correct. After you get this, latter stages are much easier.

9 comments:

carol morgan carmichael said...

This is so crazy good. Love your sense of humor too. Thanks for the tip on paring things down.

George Carr said...

Yes, thanks for the tip. Squinting is a common suggestion, but one-eyed squinting is a new one to me.
Since you are working from a photo, could you alter it in Photoshop to achieve the same effect as squinting?

Karen Eade said...

Awesome, just AWESOME, it reminded me of one of those tiny Eastern carvings in ivory or jade with a huge amount of detail in a tiny amount of space

Anonymous said...

Just fabulous!

Douglas Clark said...

This is incredibly good. Wow! I love it.

Mike Kennedy said...

You caught me with your joke! Too funny! Nice to see a little painting tip too. Thanks! Mike from Landgrove Inn area and Putney Painters April workshop!

Karen Werner said...

Thank you for the tips. This is gorgeous. Amazing color harmony.

Anonymous said...

great!! any workshop in ny??

Lisa Graham said...

So amazing...that is A LOT of detail on such a small surface. Excellent and perfect. I especially love the woman in the lower right.