"I make these posts in memory of my mother - to let her know I'm staying out of trouble"

The City from the top of a roof is so dramatic and tempting - but also fraught with challenges. In this blog post and video I want to introduce a view of Bostons Historic North End from Frankie's Rooftop. Its not the typical subject for the plein air artist - but sometimes its just irresistible and it has to be really special to get me up on the roof because I do fear high places. 

Once you are set up safely there are some specific challenges to getting started

Finding and isolating a view

there is just SO much and it is difficult to stop your eyes from tracking every building , every window...for this reason setting a focal area to get started becomes so important. how do we go that?

I find the view finder in my bag and right away I can crop out big parts of the city and find a focal area.

Finding your line of sight - eye level

this is not as difficult but helps in plotting the various angles with some believability. I look for the flattest roof top in my focal area and set that as the first horizontal in my painting. This gives me a measure for adding adjacent angles and directionals

How much / little drawing ?

Different artists will differ here. In my case I like to let the brush do the talking and so I place a few lines I consider important in addition to that first horizontal - in todays painting I found the curving street below important and so place some lines to get me started.

Palette choices ...

I choose to use a single color for several reasons

I like sepia

I think it makes for an easier approach to this complex subject

The single color helps me communicate complex ideas to my students...

Brush Choices...

As big as possible for as long as possible

That requires me to think more about each stroke and shape

Lastly...

Plan like a turtle

Paint lie a rabbit

words of wisdom from the great Edgar Whitney