Mosque update

This is going really slowly. It is hard! It takes a lot of concentration and right now I can't work for long periods of time on it as my brain gets frazzled!!!

I have mostly been working on putting in the shadows, but there is so much detail and so many domes it is really hard work! I am just painting it - can you imagine what it was like to build.

I am using a very limited palette as usual. Cad red, cad yellow, burnt umber, cerulean blue and titanium white. I keep getting lost in the details, I should be more disciplined and get the main areas done first. Today I tried really hard to do that, but the details kept drawing me back. I guess I am in a hurry to finish! Don't know why.

New things for me

It is a long time since I have done any paintings with buildings or structures in them. For the past two or three years I have been mostly painting either dogs or horses, and that is becoming relatively easy for me now. I think the last time I did a painting of a building was when I was in primary school and the teacher made us study local architecture and took us on field trips to draw churches.

Well, perhaps I should have started again with something simpler, but every day I pass the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi when I am picking up the kids from school. I love the way the light reflects off it, and especially around 5pm at the onset of dusk.

This is a work in progress (wip) - oil on canvas 10" x 20"

At the moment it is in the very early stages. I started to block in the shadows, but then got carried away with the domes! I will finish blocking in the shadows of the walls before I do much more on the domes, but I just wanted to see if I could get the effect I was looking for. It is going in the right direction. There are some issues I have to deal with, but it is an extremely complicated structure and there are a lot of small domes, ledges and doors. This is a real challenge for me.