This painting is the first really complex piece of my New Orleans series. When I started it, I had no idea it would send me down a path of painting so many pieces of these New Orleans street scenes. This piece is pretty special to me as I took the photo on my first trip there. My girlfriends and I were walking from the French Quarter to Frenchmen Street and you could hear this band’s music from blocks and blocks away. Our anticipation building with every step along with our hopes that we were going where ever that music was coming from. Lucky for us, they were playing right on the corner of Frenchmen and Chartres. It was the perfect welcome. As far as process for this piece goes, I felt very nervous about painting this piece. It was the first non abstract painting I had done in a very long time, I also had not done a piece this large in a while. I figured it was probably best to draw it out first using charcoal. And if you’ve seen my posts of me earlier New Orleans paintings, its something I’ve done with all of them because it worked out well.
Another thing you might notice that’s different about this painting and the other New Orleans pieces is that my signature “drip” texture is absent. That is because I did the base coat/first layer of this piece with acrylic paint. While I did thin the paint out with water, it just doesn’t create the same texture as the oil paint. I don’t recall my reasoning for starting with acrylic paint on this but if I could go back in time I would tell myself to skip the acrylics.
Once the initial layer was dried, which was about ten minutes, I started in with oils. I tend to always go from background to foreground and this piece was no exception. I struggled a lot with the background of this piece, I constantly felt I was painting to tight and detailed, which to be honest I still feel like I may end up painting over some of the hard edges in the background to loosen it up a bit in the future. Once the background is finished I start on the figures. I began with adding generic details first like different values and colors in the faces as well as adding dimension to their shirts.
At this point I have spent a lot of time adding details to each of the figures faces and instruments. I still have the central figure’s instrument and the figure all the way to the left to paint in but the painting is definitely coming to life!
Once all the faces and instruments are painted, I move on to finish the clothing and shoes on each of the figures and the last thing is to write Frenchmen on the street sign as a finishing touch!