Sketch for Staircases
Posted: January 15, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 8 Comments »Orange, green and purple. Secondary colours are not my usual palette. I haven’t researched enough about other painters to see if they do this but I seem to always reach for the same colour combinations and they tend towards blues and yellows with some reds thrown in. But it is probably good to break these habits so I am going to turn this into a bigger painting. I have been wanting to paint some of Montreal’s iconic outdoor staircases and this unshoveled one was so perfect next to its darker green neighbour.
What is the size of your paper, Shari? Love to see your daily sketches!
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This one is 6″ x 4″. Arches watercolour travel sketch book. I don’t like the paper in this but it is fine for these little sketches. So glad you like the sketches!
Love the composition. Lovely little dance between the two stairways….one covered with snow, and the other clear and open… yes I do think artists gravitate towards their favorite colors.
Thanks Sue Anne. That is a good description of the dancing staircases!
Lovely staircases!! I didn’t know, that they are iconic!
Yes, this is a distinctive feature of Montreal. You would think that because of our harsh winters the staircases would be indoors but they are not! I have never lived in a house like this but you can imagine that those stairs would get pretty slippery in winter.
The sketch is interesting and could become a good subject for a larger painting. The difficult bit that I see is the really strong vertical with different colours on each side… how to handle that without it looking like two separate painting placed side by side… what do you think? The mirrored spirals should help.
I have been thinking the same thing as I look at the sketch on my desk. I will probably get rid of it in the final painting. It’s just a distracting element.