Figures in the Haze

Painting Finished: April 14, 2022

Pictured above is Markino's Fog: Ladies Crossing Piccadilly. For this painting, I began with the sketch of the figures as there was no way I was going to get the correct proportions by painting it by sight. I decided that I would change it a bit and do one women figure and a Dalmatian instead of the two women because the painting reminded of 101 Dalmatians (yes, I know it isn't the correct time period). The women figure is a blend of Anita and the women at the front of the painting. Forgive the face, as I'm not very skilled at drawing noses, especially in profile.

Once I finished sketching, I began to do the hazy background of the painting. I began with a light wash of pink, blue, and purple. Then I added stronger layers of paint (while the paper was still wet) to the areas that I wanted to darken. Later, once the paper had fully dried, I added more layers using water to get the more blurred and hazy effect. For the line of the side walk, I made sure to let the paper dry before I created the distinct line and then add paint mixed with to blend away from it, adding more water if needed. Lastly I painted the blurred figures and the blurred lines of the tree trunk. I made sure that the paper was fully dry (so that the figures are distinct) and then mixed paint with lots of water, to get the light coloring.

Lastly, I colored in the figures themselves. I painted from light to dark, painting the underside of her coat and the Dalmatian an off-white and then ending with the straight black of the Dalmatian spots, hat, and blouse. Because the goal here, was to make distinct line and not blurred ones, I rarely put water directly on the paper and instead diluted the paint to get lighter colors. The only except would be if I wanted to blur some of the paint for shading purposes, and then I would place the tiniest amount of water on the tip of my brush and make a kind of scrubbing motion. I mostly used a liner brush to create the thin lines. Et voilà! Now there's a 101 Dalmation Markino knockoff painting.