Arriving at the Mark Hopkins San Francisco

Arriving at the Mark Hopkins San Francisco - Watercolour and graphite (16" x 12") by Benoit Philippe

The InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco opened in 1926 and is located at One Nob Hill (in tersection of California and Mason streets). The hotel was named after Mark Hopkins, a founder of the Central Pacific Railroad.

On the website of the hotel, it says: “The 19-story hotel's architecture is a combination of French chateau and Spanish Renaissance, embellished with elaborate terra cotta ornamentation.”

Arriving at the Mark Hopkins San Francisco - Detail. You can see the texture added with the graphite on the dark suit of the doorman.

I took the reference photograph I used for this painting while walking around San Francisco. What I really liked in the picture is the doorman caught in motion while he carries the suitcase from the taxi to the hotel’s entrance.

Arriving at the Mark Hopkins San Francisco - Intermediate stage with watercolour only.

   Technorati Tags    :  Mark Hopkins hotel    San Francisco    InterContinental    watercolour    watercolor    mixed media    graphite   

                                                 

Dragon Gate (San Francisco)

After reading the book "Painting landscape with atmosphere" by Ray Balkwill, I wanted to try a mixed media painting and settled for watercolour and graphite.

Dragon Gate (San Francisco) - Watercolour (31 cm x 39 cm) by Benoit Philippe

I really enjoyed the freedom of playing with colours. After drawing the taxi with a pencil, I covered it with masking fluid. I also splattered the sheet of paper with masking fluid to create an effect similar to the batik technique on fabrics.

I then laid out the washes and applied colours for the elements of the background. When the washes were dry, I splattered the paper with colours in the same way I did with the masking fluid.

The graphite gives texture to the dark lower part of the car

After removing the masking fluid, I painted the taxi.

It was time to switch tool and draw with the graphite pencil. The texture of graphite on the paper is coarse and gives vigour to the drawing. I also hatched the dark parts of the car to create a pattern.

The effect created by using graphite and watercolour together reminds me of some of the works by Enki Bilal, a creator of elaborate comics I admire.

The random splattering creates some interesting texture as well as an idea of movement

The coloured washes loosely fit the drawing, which was my intention