The book project is coming to a close and these are a couple of the last paintings tackled. As I like to say, the finishing off of a painting at this point is "icing on the cake" as the work of figuring out the storytelling, action, composition and main elements of the piece has already been done. Now, it becomes a matter of executing each element of the painting as well as possible, solving any challenges presented and hopefully finding some happy surprises along the way.
Up From The Subway underpainting from The Sound of All Things
The image above is a painting of a Brooklyn street at dusk, with the daylight waning but still present and interior lights glowing through the windows of the brownstones. The main character is the boy, out front as always, hopping on a found hopscotch court chalked on the sidewalk. I used my old block in Park Slope, Carroll Street near 5th Ave, as the main reference.
Night Reading underpainting from The Sound of All Things
The final image of the story is the main character reading by flashlight and thinking about how to describe the audible world to his deaf father. Since most of the book is in daylight, this is a departure and a quite ending to the "loud" story, which features a roller coaster ride and fireworks.