My alley

I love the alley behind my house. I like the shadows, the garages, and the lovely white pine tree halfway down and on the other side of the block. Here is my alley series.

I can't stop staring at these and I think that means I like them? I haven't put the power/phone wires in yet (on 1st and 3rd) and it's not so obvious in the alley at night but it does need to be in the alley in the day looking the other way in the daylight (3rd). I tried the brush but my small brushes are a bit wrecked and then I tried the 0.7 Staedtler pigment pen on another painting I was gone to gesso over anyway,  and I think that will work. Just need to do it. That's the wrecking step.

I wonder if the clouds in the daylight are overwhelming? I did two grounds on the panel; a wedge of the top was in blue and the bottom was in black. The blue had retarder in it so that I could blend in the white and a couple of greys. This was also (I think) my assignment to use adjacent colors so it's blue, green, and purple but maybe I got the assignment wrong. I've been using Golden Retarder on these. It makes the colors blend in a different way.

Then a sketch (with the water soluble graphite crayon) of a night scene looking the other direction farther down. The city sky was luminous grey from snow and atmospheric lights; there were dark corners and bright sections from the alley pole lights and shadows in the snow. Doesn't look like much in the sketch. A little corner of the big white pine is on the right.

This one took me forever and I think I spent way too much time on it. From a distance I understand it's an alley. The garages are a little crazy. The light works. I was trying to make the alley look like the alley in the dark. Hard to get darks.