I’ve just started a new painting, this one from my own South Burnaby neighbourhood, featuring the Kingsway entrance to Metropolis at Metrotown. I start right in doing the drawing with my paint brushes. Not having an eraser forces me to be careful checking all the spacial relationships between the components of this scene. It certainly doesn’t have to be exact. I like how the hand drawing seeds life into the final rendering.

I’m continuing with the drawing but also blocking in larger areas with colour. Obviously, this is to be a night scene and I want it to be foggy, which is something I don’t have direct reference for, so I’ll just have to work that out as I go along. Fog would be much easier with oils because of its long dry time, but with acrylics, I could always use my old airbrush or canned, artist’s acrylic, spray paint is available, but I’ll give it my best shot with brushes first. Either way, I have to block in some base colours first. Let’s see how it goes.

The complexity increases as I continue to draw and block in the scene, especially as I start to fill in more buildings, cars and street level elements. This is where I discover some of my initial drawing is off here and there because some pieces aren’t fitting together right. I just adjust and fix as I go along.

More drawing and blocking as I fill in more and more of the canvas. I’ve concentrated the last few days mostly on the buildings and cars. Next, I’ll be working on the sky and the two black towers in the background.

Still nudging this piece along with more work on the background top area, adding more fog effects, still experimenting with the final look of the towers and their lighted windows. In this regard, I’ve also been adding street light poles and middle distance building details. Still keeping things rough while I find the fog tones that build the depth into the scene. I’ll block in the rest of the street surface next so I can better judge the colouring I need as I go.