Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Below Grand Central Station

Below the main floor of Grand Central Station is the lower level, sometimes known as the Dining Concourse or the Suburban Concourse.


My train leaves in 20 minutes, just time for a quick study. I lean on the stand-up counter and look out across the floor. Not far away is the Lost and Found counter, where they've recovered "fake teeth, prosthetic body parts, legal documents, diamond pouches, live animals, and a $100,000 violin." (Wikipedia)


This sketch is about the size of two business cards side by side (video via Facebook). I play up the contrast between warm light in the distance vs. cool light closer, despite the fact that the actual light is fairly even.


I use gouache and watercolor, with a little pastel at the end. The colors are Flame red (Daler Rowney) and Titanium whiteYellow ochre, and Anthraquinone blue (M. Graham). Anthraquinone is a red-leaning blue that's very dark and mysterious, like the sky at midnight or a lonely bassoon.
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Online article about Anthraquinone blue
Online article: The Mystery of Grand Central’s Suburban Concourse

5 comments:

  1. Amazing what you are able to achieve in 20 mins! Do you just discard the dried gouache afterwards? Or you are able to judge the amounts you need well enough to not have leftovers?

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  2. Do you ever use the acrylic inks from Daler-Rowney or Liquitex?
    If so, do you like them?

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  3. Not to under-estimate your quick and precise preliminary drawing for this complex scene:
    It sets the compass-north for everything that so colorfully follows.

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  4. I love seeing how you can create a warm/cool colour scheme in a situation where it doesn't seem so obvious in the subject. There's something magical about the immediacy of a quick sketch like this.

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