Painting for June 12

For my 3 hour painting today I decided to challenge myself and try something urban. Buildings have historically been a challenge for me, so even though I really don't like working on them I decided that I'd make myself do that today. Besides, most of the exciting things happen in or around buildings, to be uncomfortable drawing them is just ridiculous!

I'm a big reference image user. Even when I don't post them, I always use at least 3 references, often I have 7-20 tabs open with different images. They help give me ideas, or see things from different angles when I draw, so that is indispensable. Today I flickr searched some images from Tokyo alleys. I actually took a lot of similar pictures from my time in Tokyo as well, so that was a big help on thistoo.

The basic under-structure

The beginning color, blocking, etc,

Right here is the nastiest part of the drawing for me I think. I always want to give up right around the 1.5-2 hour mark. At this point I'm convinced it's never going to work, none of the shapes or colors look right, I'm a terrible amateur and I should have pursued a career in accounting. But... I'd spend all day feeling sulky if I just gave it up, so like a true masochist I took a ten minute break to ice my arm (need more frozen peas) and went back to it.

Happier. I've resolved some color problems and added detail.

Added some neon for a little Blade Runner pizazz.

I'm really glad I kept going, I'm proud of the final result. The brushes have been so helpful, but also just doing a painting each day is really starting to make me more adventurous and less anal in my style. There's still issues, but I feel like I'm making progress.

As I mentioned above, my arm has been bothering me for the past week. I'm thinking it's a combination of the drawing and my current desk set up. It's very cramped, since I only have one small desk and 2 monitors plus a Cintiq... not allowing me to draw at the healthiest of angles at times. I've ordered a new table though and I'm hoping that the additional space will let me get back to a healthier (and happier!) arm. Fingers crossed!