Paint Along With Nancy Kominsky; 108; Rain in Philadelphia

Hello, I'm Nancy Kaminsky and today we're going to paint a street scene. We must have very good grids and do them very carefully because after all we don't want our buildings leaning, although I'm noted for leaning buildings. They say it's an original Kaminsky of all the buildings lean, so be very, very careful like that. There we are. This is a rainy day by the way. This is again something new, something and very interesting because I think that most people like to paint well rain or snow or what have you. I certainly do. It's a very exciting painting. Now, we're going to put

in our buildings. I purposely kept the buildings straight across instead of having the buildings in perspective. I had the street in perspective. So we're going to do it this way. The buildings actually fit into these two squares like this. Each section is a building. Isn't that marvelous? There, like this. You see, I've planned it so that it's much easier for drawing. I want to clean that up. Let me clean that up for Justin moment because it's getting a little sloppy. Fine. Now, we're going to put in our, these are the buildings like this. Each one is a building. It's a row of houses, by the way. And these are the roofs like that. Very, them just a little, like this, like that. We're not going to paint all the windows and things. And we're going to do that

when we put the color on. So I don't want to take the time to do it now. They take a little time. And I'll just assume save it for the color. I'll do a couple just to give you an idea and the door just like that. That's all I'm going to give you. Now, the next thing we do, put the sidewalk in right in front of the buildings. And we're going to put in the street. This is a very interesting thing. The perspective of the street creates the depth in the painting. So we're going to put a line here and one here. And then we're going to bring this out to here for a little dot there and bring the street out like that. We have another street, actually a pavement on the other side. And it comes this way. Put your little dot so you know

where you're going and bring it out like that. You see you're already going up into the buildings and onto this other street like that. Now, we do have curbs like this. Now, be very careful about the slope of the street. There we are. Now, we have our, I'm not going to fuss too much with the buildings. I will put in a couple of chimney pots just to give you an idea of what's happening. Fine. Now, this street scene has two railings with trees and shrubs like this. It goes up like that this way. Then on this side also, be sure that the railing goes above the street line like this. And there again, we will put the railings in very loosely for now, like this.

Now, we're introducing again another first, a figure in the painting. Now, this may do you in, but it's very impressionistic that would save you some. But nonetheless, you will be able to do it if you do it very loosely the way I tell you and the way I show you. So, as long as it looks human, I'm happy with it. There we are. Now, we have little things like railings here in front of the windows and what have you. But I won't do those for now because as I said, they do take time and we'll do them in a moment. Slant little roofs like this. Now, we have two beautiful trees on either side. Also, it's very good for the composition and it creates interest on both sides of the painting. Now, you always just really leave the trunks in, but I will put in a few branches just to give you an idea of what's happening.

Very large trunks like that. Then we have another tree that comes out this way, like that, over there. This again, we can do when we're painting. There. Now, we must do the figure. The figure we put in Matilda right here, like this. Please keep it simple. I don't want you worrying about hats and, you know, check skirts and what have you. Just have a nice little woman walking in the rain with her umbrella and don't get too involved or too, no. I would like her skirt blowing a little bit like that. I have to give the new look, the new long skirts.

I'm sure she's not leaning or falling over. I think she's a little short, so I'll make her a little taller by adding some more at the top. We can change that in the painting. I think we've lost her head, but we'll find it. As long as I don't lose mine, we're in business. Fine. Now, let's put the umbrella. Actually, I will add the umbrella last because we have a problem here with the house and I've told you many times that actually it's best to wait and add to the rest in the painting. I could draw it in just to make it happy so you can see it. We have a lamp post over here, like this. There again, I will develop this in the painting and not in the drawing. Now, it's very important that we put in our shadows now.

Now, let's leave her for just a moment. The most important thing is to decide where the light is coming from and we must shade this very, very carefully because we cut to create a wet street. And that's quite a little something to do. The light is coming from the right, so we're going to shade the left side of the houses like this and under the roofs like that. Don't forget, we have a shadow under the roofs because they do extend out beyond the wall of the house which creates a shadow. These are your rooftops like this and so on. I feel better with the windows. I'm going to darken the trees like that. Now, we have here. I want you to darken that so you can see that.

There we are. We have a reflection of the tree into the street like this. And we have one here, like this, and a little two of them here. We have one under the woman like this and underneath the edge of this building or rather the fence like this. Underneath this tree like this, you see already we're getting a wet feeling like that. And it's a little darker in front but not much like that. Now, this is very simple but I don't want to do too much because as I say we're going to do it with paint. But be sure, now we have a lovely shadow right here by the sidewalk and it goes like this along the curb like that. I think that actually lets leave that and start with color because I don't want to do too much.

Let's leave it for the moment like that. Be sure that you get your buildings in that they are straight like condemned houses. There. Fine. There we are. Now we've got the drawing in and we've got the shading in and remember to keep these shadows in mind as you paint. Because if you don't then you're in trouble, it's not a wet street. Fine. Now we start with the sky and we start with the dark and medium tone, the top, the light tone, the very top of the buildings like this. Out go the trees as usual. This is the medium tone. And then some light tone.

I have a tendency to paint my skies from right to left. I should vary that I guess. It just seems easier. Now let's do the light tone and the extra light tone. I mentioned previously that we do have other tones. This is a lovely light tone and it creates a marvelous feeling in the sky. Even though it's a rainy day there is a light at the horizon. When you're out or traveling about or driving notice the sky and you will know exactly what I'm saying. This is a lovely thing about painting. You will see a lot of things that you never saw before and you will find that everything I'm telling you is valid. Of course admittedly I'm simplifying it for you until you learn. This is not the end, it's just a means to an end.

I'm going to add a couple of dark tones to give it a kind of a stormy feeling like this. After all it is raining. There we are. Now let's go to the buildings. Now we have to work in the shape of the rooftops like this. I think I forgot, no I didn't forget actually I just ran the sky into it. Like that and do all of the rooftops like this. I'm sure when they were built that's the way they built them. Since there are row houses they probably mass produced them. And we're going to outline them in purple for emphasis also to separate them.

It's a cagey way of getting you off the hook but it works very well. Now I'll pick up our purple and outline the roofs like this. All we threw like that. We can add the chimneys a little later. I would like to add a little bit of purple just on the edges to give it a little interest. Now let's go to the houses. Start on the left. I've added a little orange to this tone and incidentally this is what is known as a monochromatic painting. It's all shades of the same color. It's a very interesting technique and a little different again. So we have a lot of firsts in this painting. I don't want to lose Matilda there because I might have to put her back in at a time when I need to have the time.

There we are. We work from dark to light. Don't worry about the tree. That's an old refrain I think by now. There we go to the middle tone. Which is quite green. I think you're going to be a little upset because it's green but when it's finished you'll see how lovely it looks and how interesting it is. I do not like to paint the traditional or the popular conception of a gray picture because it's a gray day. Now work this out a little bit like this that's a little more interesting. The middle tone over here. Don't worry about the trees. We've got the lower trunk so we're not lost. Now we work the light tone on the side like this.

A little purple in between like that. The light tone. Also we're going to add another lovely tone. It has a bit of blue in it to give the painting a little interest because it can become too monotonous to use the same tone without little touches of other colors. So we're going to create a little interest by adding another tone, a tint of another tone. This tone is a lovely blue shade like this. Which gives it a very interesting look. Fine. There we are. Now we have the outline of the buildings. Let's put in our sidewalk so we don't lose it. I'm afraid I've lost my little friend.

A little purple in between. Now the thing we're going to do next are the windows and the doors. I think it would be much easier if you drew little lines like this for you so you know where you windows go and you can line them up that way. Just take your knife, scratch in about where you want them. There's two down here in the doorway and so on. Like that. There we go. We take purple and when we put this window in, this is a very interesting technique. We simply go on one side like this with the purple and then we take it and just outline the other side. Please do not get the windows too large like that. Very simple. Please no curtains or shades or what have you. Like that.

And we have a nice doorway. And don't worry about it. We can put little goodies on it. We have a lovely little railing which will change that a little bit and give it a little interest. But for now, that's what we'll do. You see those windows went very fast and that's the way it should be. They should be just impressions of windows. They can add little lines like that. Like this. And the doorway. Does have a door you know. I think these people haven't taken very good care of that house. There we are. Let's get the doorway in. Let me go over here. Put little lines at the bottom to square it up a little bit anyway so it doesn't look quite so.

Like a hurry up window. The thing I really want you to learn is how to do reflections of in rain. And that's lovely and important. Now we have one more set of windows. Like that. On the side there we have a nice doorway. Please don't get impatient. Try to do not a fussy job but do try to keep your windows lined up. I mean this. I forget the doorway on the right. I think at this point I'm going to put in the chimney because I may not get to them and so I'm going to do it right away. Very simply because the tree branches will cover most of the windows.

There we are. Now let's do the sidewalk. There's one here you know. Like that. I've got to go through her poor little head. I'm going to bring that down like that and start fresh. I'll start in that sidewalk a little bit to line it up and then we'll put a highlight on it in a moment. Now let's go to the left of the painting. We're going to start with the highlights. The top part of the street is very light because there's a reflection. So we go very light, light, medium and dark this way. When we put our strokes on we use our marvelous water stroke that we use when we paint sea or lakes or what have you. It's an all reliable stroke and it is absolutely wonderful for something like this.

Of course you're probably thinking that your street will look like a lake. We have the street here and we go to the dark tone down here on the extra dark tone like this. Like that. And this street goes around that way like this. There we are.

Put your shadows in like this, east and west like that. Extra dark tone. Put some purple like this. I'm going to put the fences in which we just scratch in like that. I've got to put the trees in like this. There again, keep them simple.

With purple as usual. I want to get Matilda in before it could be that she will have gone in more than houses. That might be one solution when being nearly as much fun. We have a tree right here.

I'm going to put in our figure. I've got to get the umbrella in. And we're just about finished this painting. Put the lamp.

Now I'll put the highlights into the. And our little railings. We will scratch in like that. Don't get them too wide. Just to give it a little interest. We're going to highlight the shadows a little more.

Such a very good strong reflection. Work a few strokes downward like this, just as we do in the water. There we are for today, now for the signature. Goodbye for now. Thank you for watching. This program was made possible by a grant from Commercial Union Assurance Companies.