Climbing Nob Hill

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Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 24, 2013 at 23:33

Once again Stu, a great painting!! ...your time spent on the prelim work was well worth it and rewarding!!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 24, 2013 at 17:29

Jessica, thanks, but a really good reference photo is very important, because it eliminates the need to figure out a composition that will be interesting. I usually try a lot of different Lengthcrops of the photo and look carefully at a 4 value black and white study and the Notan (2 value B & W study) to see if I have a good value pattern and an interesting abstract design. Only then do I decide to paint it. I try and solidify my composition and value structure in my planning stages. This is what works best for me. Stu

Comment by Jessica Futerman on July 24, 2013 at 17:10

You should take full credit for this Stuart; it's not the photo that produced such a good painting!  I used this photo too, and didn't even attempt to paint it with the water in the background; just sort of combined Richard's demo painting & my photo!  

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 24, 2013 at 15:46

Thanks Linda and Jim.   Jim, you are not going to believe how I started this, but here goes.  I cropped Jessica's photo and converted it to a 4 value study in Photoshop Elements and printed it on my laser printer.   Then I used some transfer paper to outline the major value shapes onto the Arches paper for oils.  I freshened up my sketch with pastel pencils and decided to try some texture on the paper where there was foliage, buildings, etc. but not where there was sky or water.   I had already shaded in my darkest darks with pastel pencils.  The texturing material was Liquitex super heavy gesso and it kind of smudged my drawing.   I erased any remaining graphite marks from the transfer paper not covered with the gesso.   Then I decided that since this paper is so darn absorbent that I would coat it with Gamblin's oil ground; so I applied a thin layer of this and let it dry completely (about 2 days).  I then laid in all my darks with transparent color using UB + a cool red and a little warm yellow.   I then painted in the sky, background hills, water and all my lights and laid in lights and darks on the cable car.   Then I let everything dry and finished the whole thing with darks and lights.  The autos are mostly suggested and very loose as are most of the buildings.   Almost all my sharp focused detail was reserved for the cable car.  I used the tracks, lines on the street and crosswalks all as pointers to my focal point.  My intention was to grab the eye with my cable car and then lead it down the street, across the water and past Angel Island all the way up to the vaguely suggested bridge in the far distance.  The tall buildings on the right are the eye stopper so the eye does not leave the picture.   I looked on the internet for some better cable car photos, but none of the images were as good as Jessica's photo.   My rule of thumb on photos (I got this from Johannes Vloothuis) is:  "If the photo has 75% of the information you need to paint an interesting painting, use it"; I am paraphrasing what he says, but the basic idea is to correct values and color where photos lie, but keep the composition that it provides.   I'm glad you asked, but don't think this is my usual way to paint.   I usually do a value block-in as Michael does with a fairly loose drawing.   When there are buildings and I am working from a photo, I draw perspective lines on the photo, find my vanishing point(s) and get my linear perspective down right away with my drawing and then block in the shapes with my underpainting; transparent darks in first and opaque lights in second.   Stu

Comment by Linda L. Kano on July 24, 2013 at 14:50

Amazing!

Comment by Jim Haycock on July 24, 2013 at 14:47

Beautiful!  I love the balance and subtle colors!  And, there's just enough detail to make it interesting without over-powering the scene with "stuff."

Technical question: How did you start this?  Did you create a lined drawing or just use the brush-drawing approach like Richard?  

Seriously, all this on a 9"x12"???  Did you use some kind of microscope or what?

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 24, 2013 at 14:05

Thank you all.  Jessica's terrific photo made this painting a slam dunk for me.  The cable car was supposed to be the star and all the other stuff was to be subordinated.   I really appreciate all the nice comments and thank you Jessica for permission to paint your photo.  I really do not like the arches oil paper that well; Mario, you can get it on the Internet from Dick Blick, or any of the discount places, but I don't know about shipping costs to where you live.  Silvana, I am glad you noticed that I left out a lot of the details, because that is usually quite hard for me to do.    Stu

Comment by Dorian Aronson on July 24, 2013 at 13:55

Smiles for you Stu........ : ))

Comment by Ningning Li on July 24, 2013 at 9:55

I just found this one now too. Another great painting! Yes, the cable car is the star and be detailed carefully. The srroundings are less detail. This makes me concentrate on the center of interest of this well polished cable car. Micheal's comment makes me smiles. Stuart, again, you did a wonderful job!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 24, 2013 at 9:44

Stu, it looks great!!  I did not even realize you posted this until just now!!!  I agree with Jessica, the cable car is the star!!!  I like that little bit of dark red building down there at the end of Powell Street ....brings your eye back there and makes you stop for a second before heading across the bay!!!!  I see you resisted putting brake lights on the dark car going down the hill ....that might have been too much of an attention getter???

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