Gas Works Park in Seattle

Gas works park in Seattle and a spectacular view of the city. Too bad I was facing into the sun and received a healthy sunburn from today’s session.

For a reason unrelated to painting I was looking at “Gas Works Park” during the week and I decided to paint it on the weekend. Of course this was Easter weekend and there were a ton of people there. I was skeptical that I would even paint there because of all the people but I found a place a top a hill and backed against some trees so I wouldn’t be bothered much. Luckly I wasn’t bothered too much. And I must say, I need to get over my fear of people anyway. Everyone that did approach me was very nice.

I watched a video posted this week by James Gurney where him and some friends did some urban landscapes and I was thinking that I should be more like them, and welcome people, they had a great time, I’m sure I could also. By the way, this guy can fracking draw his @$$ off!

So the park was very nice and there was so much I could paint here. Literally I could paint at this park every day all year and still have interest in it. The park literally has everything. Although I must say that I should have painted this park later in the day and my next painting in the morning. I ended up facing into the sun on both paintings. I really don’t care that it was difficult to paint, I just hated that I got a bit of sun burn on my face 🙁 .

The Painting

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The Location

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Tons of people enjoying the first day of summer weather here in Seattle. Check out the super cool gas works structure on the left. This was I picture I took right at the start of the painting.

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I took this picture right as I finished my painting, you can see that the light has changed a bit on the city.

My hierarchy of painting importance

  1. Drawing
  2. Value
  3. Edges
  4. Composition
  5. Color

Value

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How can I improve the values?

When I was painting this I was thinking that I had the city too dark and I lightened it a bit. With this comparison I see that I have made the city just a bit to light. The glare on the picture of the painting doesn’t help the comparison also.

Session Details