Graffiti and Posters

Today’s watercolor experiment: I have been looking through my archived photos of New York City street scenes. Most of them qualify for membership in my graffiti series.  Today’s snapshot, like yesterday‘s, pictures graffiti on a corner of a building. One wall of the corner building is decorated with series of ripped up posters; the other corner […]

Corner Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: The photograph for today’s watercolor experiment looks downright dusty. It is probably the underexposure and low contrast of the print. I am sure that the day I took that photograph, more than 20 years ago, the scene itself was well lit. I wanted to make the watercolor different from the photo. I […]

Reader Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: I found another graffit-o-genic photograph in my files. I took it in 1991 during a walk through Coney Island. Coney Island is highly over-populated in the summertime, but nearly abandoned in the winter. I saw the cinderblocked opening to the ‘Reader Adviser’ building. The graffiti was incidental to me, at the time. […]

Air Brush Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: Today’s experiment is a rendering of a trompe l’oeil mural that is based on a photograph I took in Midtown Manhattan in 1989. I was wandering around, enjoying the sights at the Memorial Day block party. I wasn’t thinking in terms of graffiti when I took the picture, but it fits with my graffiti […]

Sunset Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: I took the photograph below near the West Village in 1989, as I recall (where 6th Avenue curves around). The little house was so cool. I tried to imagine buying it, if it were indeed for sale. Somehow I think the sign was advertising to sell something else. The bare wall of […]

Dog Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: Nestled in the film strip that I took during one of my walks near the East River in New York City, I found the photograph that I used for today’s watercolor experiment. Its composition is very simple, a portrait orientation of a big, black door (presumably the opening to an elevator shaft […]

Elegant Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: I guessed which colors to use for my watercolor sketch below. The photograph I used for reference is in black and white. I took it in the early 1990s on one of my walks up Lexington Avenue in New York City. I used a fine-tip dip pen to ink in the curves of the […]

London Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: I was in London in 1988. Even then I photographed everything and anything that caught my eye. I did not make a note of where I was when I snapped the picture below.  I call it graffiti, but as you can see, there is very little ‘tagging’ as we call it in […]

Shady Graffiti

Today’s watercolor experiment: Normally one doesn’t expect to see graffiti in a nice, tree-lined area. My watercolor below is a scene I happened upon during one of my walks around Manhattan in early November of 1991. It was a beautiful day. I thought the graffiti particularly tasteful. Maybe I was just in a good mood. […]

Bus Advertisement

I just couldn’t wait until tomorrow to post this photo.  In digitizing my film from the 80s and 90s, I came across this photo I took when I went to London in 1988.  It speaks for itself. My thoughts exactly.

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