San Fran Reaction Piece: Color

Here's my take on SF...

I have had some real struggles with keeping the viewer's eye focused on the subject at hand. I got my NY piece chewed up in the last crit because of my lack of focus, so I approached the color version with that in the forefront of my thinking.

I wanted to focus on the little kid at the back, without losing the rest of the feel of the confusion and crashing noises all around. I went back to my reference photos and comped a few retro signs from the Chinatown streets... I had to get a Chop Suey sign in!

Top is Winsor and Newton watercolor on Fabriano paper. I went back in with some white plaka to give me the pop i needed in places.

Purists are cringing, but hey... I'm an Illustrator, not a painter!

The lower sepia piece is my recent wet sepia study with new digital layers of tighter detailed material overlaid and saved as a new document.

Gotta click them to make them bigger!