While visiting Rio de Janeiro recently, my husband and I stayed in a
cute town called Urca, under the distant but watchful gaze of Christ the
Redeemer. I took dozens of vista photos, but the one that inspired
this painting is what I was most excited to capture -- our morning view
from the bus stop :) The early light dappled through the canopy of
trees and onto a common South American wall, creating an inviting scene
that was anything but common. Welcome to Rio!
I decided to crop the photo so that the door was off-center, allowing room for the lovely dappled light to lead the viewer's eye to the even more lovely dappled doorway. Here's my quick sketch, focusing on getting the perspective right.
In this step, I covered the canvas with transparent paints that were a close approximation to the final colors I wanted (or at least in the same family). The sidewalk and white of the wall have their first coat of opaque paint.
...working on the door, which is the focal point so I gave it the most attention...
...starting on the house in the background and the vines on the wall...
Here I worked on the house to the right, which was tricky because my photo left that area ill-defined and I didn't really like what I saw. So I pulled out my artistic license and painted what I wanted :)
After adjusting and softening the shadows to make them look more organic, I finished the vines, and tweaked warm/cool colors. Done! (Ha! That almost makes it sound easy.)
"A Dappled Welcome", 18x24 Oil, available
Here's the photo again for comparison. Thanks for watching!
