More reflections. This painting (right) is from a photo of my Toyota Seinna minivan (left) parked outside some stores in Beaverton, Oregon. I like this one a lot. I think I like it because it was one of the most challenging paintings I've attempted and I can still stand to look at it a week later. I used just four colors: indigo, burnt sienna, red and yellow.

Portland Reflection finished

Here's the finished Portland Reflection. You can compare this with the picture in the post 3/7. I decided to change the color of the building a bit and leave out the darker trees on the right.

I've really enjoyed looking at and then trying to paint reflections. Here are a few of my earlier attempts. Once I finish the Portland Reflection painting, I'll start on a painting of a reflection on the side of my car.

Reflections of Portland

The next painting (right back on the horse after getting tossed by the Trimet painting) is a picture of an office building in Portland. Again, a cold winter day with nice shadows and reflections off one side of the building onto the other. So far so good as I'm almost done. I've changed the colors a bit, but pretty much staying with the composition. Here's the original photo. I'll post the final painting in a day or so.

When Disaster Strikes

Well, the Trimet picture was pretty much a disaster. Initially I liked how it was turning out with all the geometric shapes and the long shadows. But the train never really had the three dimensional look of a train (unlike the other three trains I've painted) and feedback I was getting told me I wasn't even getting the sense that the train was outside. I showed it to my teacher who then suggested some darker colors at the top of the train (which made it worse). Although somewhat embarrassed to show it, here it is.