This was a hard painting to get started on. First of all, it's probably the most photographed bridge in history, so googling it produces only thousands of pictures. Criteria for me: view of the entire bridge, Manhattan buildings, the new WTC, daylight only.
Chose these as a starting-point.
So then it was about how to occupy the space on the large (30x40) canvas that had been requested. One way or another, there would be a lot of sky relative to bridge simply because of the inherent slimness of bridges.
My three-pronged solution:
- exaggerate the size and looming presence of the near pier - which would involve tinkering a bit with the perspective
- make the sky as interesting as possible without detracting from the bridge - we're looking in roughly the right direction for there to be a pale sunset behind or through the cables
- show enough Manhattan skyline to convey distance, but simplify it to avoid clutter - definitely show WTC but maybe remove a couple of distracting apartment buildings
So this is the initial outline dominated by the near pier, which has a slightly comic-booky perspective to it.
So now we've got the proportions about right, it's on to horizon, sky, background, middleground, foreground. I try to be strict about that sequence so there's not so much need for painfully careful shading around foreground objects, you just slap them in over the background that's already there.
Horizon: done.
Sky: pale sunset plus some crimson behind the buildings, a bit of darker sky in the top corner.
Background beginning to appear - I'll need to make sure the buildings are vertical but this'll do for now.
Most of the Manhattan buildings vertical now and I've added FDR drive, but I need to do something about WTC: don't make it too startling but don't make it transparent either - and keep it vertical!
Now the bridge has some stonework and a roadway but I'm starting to worry about how to draw the cables. I'll need to get the curve of the main cables right and then there's the whole problem of parallel lines ...
Main cables, roadway, cross girders - still working on the courage to put in the vertical support cables.
This contraption will certainly do parallel lines, but it may be a bit clunky.
The solution to the parallel lines problem!
Now just the park and a flag, and we're done.