A few posts ago I tried slowing down my painting process. I went back to the drawing board, figuratively and literally to paint a very detailed watercolor of one of the bookstores I photographed.  (I like to call this my hyporealistic painting style, as it almost looks like a photograph.)  Although I was pleased with the results, the process of painting was almost rote. All I had to do was to fill in the pencil sketch with the appropriate shading and I had my picture. It was so mechanical that while I was painting the (hundreds of) bricks, I watched a movie.

This is totally different than the process I used when my painting was more abstract (Abstract Expressionist Watercolors, Back to Doodling, Emotion in Art, What’s the Point?, Scarlet Fever, Abstracting from a Photograph). I had to really think about what I was doing. It seems counterintuitive that abstract painting would require more thought than a painting a recognizable scene.

The Surrealists championed the idea of tapping in to the unconscious to create a work of art. There is one problem with that: one must make deliberate (conscious) decisions when painting. Consciousness and unconsciousness are mutually exclusive. I imagine that techniques like unconscious drawing must require training similar to zen meditation, where the body’s musculature is controlled by brain centers that do not require intervention of consciousness.

Today’s experiment:

I found just the photograph. Not too many details that would require an intricate drawing and yet just enough to convey the meaning of the scene.

I took this photo in New York City on one of my walks. In taking the shot, I was concerned about the tonal range. Aside from the lack of detail in the workman’s shirt, it worked out very well.

Below is my watercolor study of this scene.

I used muted colors in the scene because I didn’t want to detract from the white areas. I used a neutral tint to emphasize the border of the steam, much as how someone would paint clouds in the sky. I would have liked the white areas to appear more billowy. However, that few features are visible behind the white mass makes this rendering believable.