The Night Shift Resurrection

I started this subway painting months ago but was promptly sidetracked by a family health situation (mom is on the mend) and only returned to finish it recently.

I had documented its earliest stages:

I'd been pretty pleased with the figure at this point - but her head was troubling me. 


I decided to simplify the background and got a nice shape going on with her head and haircut - for some reason I wiped out her legs and feet, ugh:

I should have left her head alone - now I felt like I disturbed that nice haircut, and her feet were not cooperating. It was at this stage, I think, that all hell broke loose in my mom's life (fell and broke a hip, oy!) and the painting sat for several months, staring at me:

I finally picked up the brushes again last month and finished:

Or so I thought! I continued to noodle it a bit (trim her hips and tinker with her legs - argh! Will update this later - but I have to get this blog back to life so up she goes.

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NYC Subway Rider No. 21

NYC Subway Rider No. 21
4" x 4"x oil on wood

I'm coming out of hibernating, slowly but surely.

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Portrait Progression

Ok, who doesn't like a portrait progression, right? Here's my next lady on a train. She seemed a bit awkward and stressed, clutching several bags and, of course, the ubiquitous iPhone.

Here we go - pencil sketch on the gessoed wood block, which is approximately 4 inches square:

Then a few blocks of color:

Followed by some big, splashy patches of more color:

You know, some of our NYC subway cars have bright orange or yellow seats, while others have those icy blues. Sometimes I choose which color to paint, regardless of the original scene -- creative license, I guess.

She had her knees clamped tightly shut but her feet splayed outwards. That was the most interesting part of her pose, so I spent some time getting those legs just right:

Then I toned down that high-keyed lemon yellow behind her head, and paid some more attention to the crumpled shopping bags in her lap. I think this was a good place to stop, don't you ?

NYC Subway No. 19

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Lady On A Train -- another painting progression

This one practically painted itself....

Oh, ok, true, I did have some issues with her billowy trousers but I eventually sorted them out.....

NYC Subway No. 18
4" x 4" x 1.5" Oil on cedar wood block

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Slouching Towards Bethlehem - a Painting Progression

When the train is fairly empty, we spread out, yo.

Rewind selectah -- face issues. Again.

And window adjustments. Poetic license, ok?

Done:

NYC Subway No. 15

4" x 4" x 1.5" oil on cedar wood block

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Lost in Translation - a painting progression

My new favorite; pictures speak louder than words so I think this one needs very little explanation -- here's how it happened:

Once again, facial issues. Although I like the soft, looseness of the brushwork on this face, she looked too old and too pessimistic than what I had intended:

Her face was also too large, I think.....so I made it a bit smaller, painting over the first effort.

And then tilted her head upwards, as she was sort of lost in thought, gazing up at the wall across from her:

Done!

NYC Subway No. 16

4" x 4" x 1.5" oil on cedar wood block

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Louis Vuitton - another painting progression

This figure drove me nuts.  A simple young woman, holding a huge Louis Vuitton shopping bag, pretty straightforward. But I just couldn't get it right. Here's how it went down...........

First washes:

 Feeling pretty good at this point. In fact, wondering if I wasn't almost done -- I liked the loose, painterly textures.

But then I got hung up on the face. These blocks are so very small, and trying to get too much detail in the tiny faces frustrates me, I keep trying to simplify and not get too caught up in the details.

She was getting a bit messy:

 And her leopard print leggings were not happening. Ugh. I kept painting them and then wiping them away:

So I went back to her face - not too bad:

But I still couldn't get those legs right. I put the painting down for a while, a week or so and then came back to it. It was all very dry (not enough linseed oil) and she looked rather vacant, in addition to her troublesome legs:

So I returned to it later and made some changes. I opted to give her a pair of jeans rather than leggings and altered her face and head, to better effect I think:

Ok, done, time to stop!

New York City Subway No. 14

4" x 4" x 1.5" oil on cedar wood block

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