Thinking Ahead

I started last night working on defining the buildings. In the original photo there was another layer of walk ways or something in front of the buildings and I decided to bring the buildings down to street level. I also added a tree. It was there but kind of lost in the side of the building. None of these areas are close to being done but I am trying to sort out what I want and don't want in this painting. I am a firm believer that keeping things simple is a good plan.

As I look at it, I may add another tree to the right of the green building to give the area a bit more of a park like setting.

I have an idea for another painting and I talked to a friend about having her adorable daughter pose for some photographs that I will use as a reference. The little tike was sick this week, but there is no hurry, I still have a ways to go on this one. It is exciting to me to have another picture in my head that I want to paint. Her name is Autumn and she has the most beautiful red/orange curly hair. Every week when I arrive to teach her older brother guitar, she hides behind the front door to surprise me. She is often still dressed in her sleeper jammies and her hair is all wild. In those moments she reminds me of little thing one and two from Dr. Seus. I want to kind of play with the idea of painting Autumn in the Summer, laying in the grass laughing at the butterflies. Painting children is not something I have any experience with. I did do a figure drawing class in college. So this idea will push me to explore more unknown painting territory.

I think I want to also experiment with some mixed media projects that use both paining and mosaic work but at this point I have no solid subject in mind. Just thinking ahead and imagining the possibilities while I work on this project.