Acrylic Project: Tram part 2

 Right, this is where I stopped yesterday:-

In my last post I note a couple of areas I planned to work on in today's session - sorting out the rather messy sky and softening it a bit, painting in a base colour to the roadway in front of the tram, and completing the tram itself. Here's the first of three in progress photos I took on my phone during today's session:-

I took this one after doing some remedial work on the sky, and painting in a lot of the window details on the tram. Yu have to look closely, but you can just about see that I've added a little more yellow to the orange section at the front of the tram, which isn't quite so in yer face now. I've also added the cream trim and the cream coloured frames around the window. In the window I've sed a pthalo blue, with just a touch of black added to it. When I started out using acrylics I had a very simplistic approach to shadows - ah, dark shadow, where's me black? I didn't really understand it when other artists would say that they tried to avoid using black as much as possible, but I do now. Black, for want of a better way of phrasing it, is often just too black. 

You might just notice as well that I have done a little work on starting to paint in a bit of the detail on the figure on the left.

Just as there comes a point in every painting when you start to seriously consider jacking it in, throwing the canvas in the bin and starting all over again, there also comes a point when you start to think it might work, and might just turn out to be one of the best things you've done. This thought is no more to be trusted than the impulse to throw it in the bin. Still, this was the point where it starte to happen to me. Just starting to paint the shop front had the effect of anchoring the tram to the rest of the painting. I also rather like the change from the blue section of the oad to the yellowMy feeling is that the tram should be the most colourful and eye catching thing in the whole painting, and so I've used a lot of diluted acrylic for the shop fronts.

I've been really enjoying painting the shop fronts, which comes as a bit of a surprise to me. After about 3 and a half hours of painting I was ready to pack away, but I did do what I also did yesterday, and drew in some more of the details, this time of the windows above the shop fronts. I'm happier with the sky now, and I'm also pleased that I managed to resist the rather strong urge I had to paint the shadows onto the roadway. That will probably be one of the last things I do.

I'm looking forward to the next session, which may be as far away as Saturday next, because I plan to start painting in the brickwork. I really enjoy painting the bricks on Glasgow buildings like this one. I have painted a relatively similar scene before:-

It was my decision to put the old chap into it, which isn't the smartest idea I've ever had, but hey, if you don't try you'll never know. This was a 12x16 canvas, whereas the one I'm working on is 16x20, and details are easier to achieve on a larger canvas. It is a nice demonstration of what I mean y the brickwork of this particular kind of Glasgown building. I can't help wondering if it's the same street, with the older painting being just a little further down the street.