Painted Pony, again

Painted Pony, County Clare, Ireland 2x9 pastel, copyright 2010

Since I couldn't seem to get the image I used for the Virtual Paintout out of my head, I decided there was no point in fighting it any longer.  While the kids went to play in the snow during their unscheduled day off, I sat down at the easel and worked on this pastel.  It didn't take too long, about an hour and a half I think, probably because I had already worked it out in pencil.  It looks a little too orange on my monitor  but otherwise came out okay.  The colors are more muted than usual for me, but that seemed fitting, as I am guessing the photo was taken in the early morning.

Virtual Paintout

Break Time, 8x10 oil, copyright 2010

I think I mentioned some time ago a blog that has a virtual paintout challenge every month utilizing Google Street View.  The basic concept is that the blogger choses an area anywhere in the world and challenges artists to paint based on an image from Google Street View.  This month's choice:  Manhattan.  I couldn't pass it up, so I took a "walk" around the Upper West Side and found another brownstone that caught my eye.

The little painting above is based on this image on 76th.  Street View photos aren't the highest quality and aren't taken with the artist in mind, which means you take what you get as far as angles and lighting conditions.  It makes the whole thing more challenging, but I feel like I had a bit of an advantage in that I had been in that neighborhood only two months ago.  The biggest problem I has was in when to stop messing with it, in particular with the figures.   They are only about three inches high, so details had to be limited.  It wasn't easy, but I think it worked.

I also found an image of the brownstone I painted earlier this summer, but I like my photo much better!