Southwestern streetscape

I felt in the mood to paint something that had a bluer base to it this time around and decided that some of my reference photos from the southwest might do the trick.  Rifling through my stash, I selected a few possibilities that were so angled and warped perspectively because of the narrowness of the streets that I would have had a hard time taking out the curves and do a really detailed drawing. 

Southwestern abstract streetscape

I made a few alterations from the photos by widening the gallery building from two windows to three so it would be more of a focal point.  I kept the movie theater basically the same because I liked the pillar effect as well as the recessed arch top facade and deck over the restaurant. 

I decided to use a teal blue rather than a royal blue hue in this case – mostly because I like that color better.  I started with the yellow and red before adding the blue and I can’t decide whether that was a good idea.  I felt that later on in the drawing I had to tone down the red to mitigate its effect and I softened the yellow with a little brown in order to not take away from the blue.  I ended up working on this piece three different times.  I knew after the first session that it still needed work and I wasn’t quite satisfied after the second.  I played with it off and on the third day but finally decided I was fiddling with it rather than making real decisions and it was time to stop. 

I do like the way the blues turned out here and have chosen another set of photos to make a companion piece.