Los Angeles Interpreted

I have stopped working on my Los Angeles Sketchbook project for the time being as I can't find a publisher. It will happen some day. In the meantime, I have an opportunity to paint what I want, without having any commissions or official large projects that I am working on. Using some existing photos I had taken a while ago, I painted these two 14" x 20" Los Angeles scenes. The top view is from the observation floor of the City Hall building. The bottom view is from inside a train as it pulled into Union Station.

Every once in a while I try to do a painting without using pen and ink. The Union Station view started out that way, and after laboring for three hours on it (while watching the Super Bowl on a micro-sized digital television that fuzzed out if I so much as moved six inched either way), I gave up. Although I was ready to jettison this failure right then and there, I try never to throw anything away until I have had a chance to see it in the light of a new day. It looked like it had potential on Monday.

Usually I draw with pen first, but not being able to do it here for obvious reasons I took my pen to the almost-completed painting, treating it like a loose sketch. I also wasn't overly pleased with the composition so exaggerated the cars parked in the foreground as a distraction. There are still a few more details to finalize: some suggested architectural accents, and some more white paint touches, but overall I am pleased with this retro pen and ink redo.