Empire State Building watercolor study

empire state building watercolor study - finished

This study is done and it was invaluable for me to take the time to paint through this scene in this way. I uncovered a few ‘mistakes’ I made along the way with putting down a wash too early or one I didn’t need. This photo looks brighter than the original, and when looking at the original there are a few tonal values I plan to adjust for the final painting. For the sky I am going to make more uniform and close to the middle value of the sky. This will make the Empire State Building stand out more, and keep the top of it from getting lost in the sky (it does so more in real life than in the photo.) Same thing with the street pole – it looks lighter here. I want to do a better job with the mid buildings – make the windows better. Also I put a wash over the water tanks before I added details. That wash was too close in vale to where the ESB ended up being and it didn’t work out.

I like how the stop lights came out. I am working toward getting the completed paintings have good looking parts throughout and in another five paintings I think I should be approaching that, partly due to the experience of painting new ones, and by planning things out more and more.