Central Park Southeast… at Twilight… my third Futurist Revival canvas. Many of these buildings hold a special place in my heart… but I’ll get into that later.

On a freezing pre-blizzard eve, I stood on the bridge by Wollman Rink and snapped the scene from day to night. This was the lighting I used as the jump-off point.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy9bmp_central-park-southeast-painting-by-borbay_creation

How about the entire painting process in just over a minute set to a gorgeous soundtrack by The Ambershift, aka, Nelson Downend, Jr. and Ahmed Mahmoud? And now, on to the photos…

A rough outline of the city on a blank, 40″x40″ canvas.

Orange sky, red water… a world that makes sense to someone, I’m sure.

There it is, all red and city-like.

Jumping right into the fray with a deep color mixed with red, green and blue… RGB merged to create a real-time near black.

People often ask how the drawing gets done… I use a fine point Sharpie and an architectural ruler to lay out the shapes… I don’t try for perfection, but I do like to have a strong under-drawing. Incidentally, I don’t film the drawing portion because it doesn’t come up on film, which would make for a really boring preamble.

Now we have form. About the buildings… I’ve always loved the sloped contours of the Solow Building. For those that know me, The Plaza is huge because of Home Alone 2… in the movie, Kevin McCallister runs into Donald Trump who at the time owned The Plaza, and gives him directions.

About 15 years later, I found myself working in Trump Tower on the same floor as Mr. Trump… the magic of NYC.

And for some more background: Behind Trump is the Sony Building (which was just sold), I used to hang out in their public space on lunch breaks from time-to-time. Then there is the GM Building, where I spent 60 straight hours on a major real estate closing (north of 500 Million)… and, of course, I painted that building in my Apple Store picture.

Light beams bringing the goodness.

Establishing the foreground, balancing the blues.

Secondary dark tones and mid tones begin to flood the canvas.

The foreground was calling for another light beam, and with that, I began to “turn on the lights”.

In the Solow building, each window was treated as a mini abstract painting… not quite donuts and hotdogs, but Close. (Worst art pun in years).

Throwing light… also, in case you are interested, I painted this while watching the Sopranos… though my brother Tim guessed Boardwalk Empire because it has that roaring 20’s feel.

More beams on the water… prepping for the final stages.

?Love’s face served as my final checklist canvas…

With the water beams in place and a more animated park, I was close… all that remained was the water.

And completed… one of my favorite views of Manhattan, painted on canvas.