Today’s watercolor experiment:

I came across a photograph I took during my wanderings in Brooklyn. For a while I lived in Bay Ridge, near the Verrazano Bridge. I have endless numbers of pictures of oil tankers making their way under the bridge. For some reason, that fascinated me. Now, I can’t understand why I took so many of them.

I could be wrong, but Dyker Beach (or was it Dyker Park) was just across the Belt Parkway.  There was a nice overpass for walkers and cyclists to traverse, to get to the water. During my exploration I found some interesting markings alongside the on-ramp (or off-ramp) abutment. I have no idea what they meant, but it was an interesting sight.

I began my drawing in pencil and painted bands of color for the sky, a hint of the roadbed, the curb and the cobble stone sidewalk. I sketched the outline of the figure and the designs. Then I painted in the red of the figure’s robe. For most of the rest of the composition, I used my fine-tip pen to make outlines as well as scribbles for the graffiti. I dabbed a sponge into VanDyke brown to darken the look of the concrete wall. I then used white gouache to complete the spots, stars and other shapes on the figure and the writing behind the figure.

The canvas on which the graffiti was painted (the concrete abutment) was slightly rhomboid in shape, due to the slope of the ramp. I’m not sure if I captured this in the composition above, but it is clearly apparent in the photo below.

Perhaps the figure is the Wizard of Getting On or Off the Belt Parkway Safely.