Art Lesson #23: I'm Drawing Your Vacation Photos!

This time we go to Porto, with Katie.

The first of probably two paintings for Katie

Some of you might remember that last month I announced a new thing where I’ll paint a painting, mail it to you, and use the painting for a little art lesson. You can read all about that here if you’re interested. Also, from time to time I’ll just do these as a giveaway, so stay tuned for that possibility.

Anyway, loyal subscriber and art friend Katie signed up for this, and asked me to paint Porto, Portugal. She’d been there recently and she knew I’d been there before as well. She didn’t provide a particular photo and left it up to me.

I tend to underpromise and overdeliver on these, so this is larger than the 4x6 I promised—it’s about 6x8. Also, I’m very tempted to do another, completely different kind of painting for Katie, so it’s quite likely she’ll get two. Here’s the first one.

I thought immediately of this iconic view of Porto from across the river. Many urban sketchers attempted this scene the year I was there, each with their own unique style. So I thought, “How would I paint that right now, with the materials I travel with these days, in under half an hour?”

That last bit is important, I think, for our purposes. I’d take a different approach to this if I had three hours to sit and draw, but how often does that happen on vacation?

So here’s what I did: