This is the stage of the painting that I really enjoy. Bringing my idea to life!
In this photo you can see where I have started to bring in color to break up the shapes that I had initially blocked in. The shapes are holding together with the color added yet still maintaining the correct value to stay as part of the overall dark pattern. Within each of the figures I am keeping the color value very close and not putting in too much definition or form, but just enough to be read clearly as jacket vs jeans vs shoes and enough value shift to still see form. Where as in my block in they were all one value and color.
The next step will be to finish the trees, the roof overhang and bring in the sky and wet pavement. The plan at this point is to start lighter at the top of the sky and introduce a gradation to be darker at the bottom.
A good thing to remember is that every painting started this way (with a dominant big shape) holds together better all the way through the process of painting no matter what the subject or visual approach. I still remember watching Daniel Sprick do a demo a few years ago. He blocked in the big shape of his still life with a dark neutral color and then started to break that big shape into smaller shapes, and within a very short time, it came to life. No initial drawing or worrying about each object. Doing this painting has reminded me of that. Such a fundamental building block yet so few people I know do it, myself included.
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