One of my friends and coworkers is getting married this summer. We are celebrating this weekend in Manhattan (brunch and a 90s/00s Prom Night) and the organizer said to bring small gifts. DK (my friend) is our Art Director and appreciative of handmade/arty gifts. I knew I wanted to make her a little piece of art but really felt pressure to make her something that spoke to her aesthetic. I’m not sure I achieved it with this piece…I might be working on a back up later, lol.
She is from Europe and will be getting married in her home country. I’m so curious if this “skyline” is recognizable to anyone so I’m not going to say where yet. I have no idea if she’ll know what I was going for or if it’s a total fail. (I’ve never been here!)
It’s mostly watercolor…some pen outlining and acrylic ink for the splatters. I used the “one line” method for the structures. It’s mounted on a piece of cradle board I scrounged from another project. I haven’t sealed it with anything yet…or signed it.
I’m using this post partly to help me decide if I’m going to gift it or not so honest feedback is appreciated. Did I butcher the city? Is it too dark? Too amateur? Did I ruin it with the splatters? I can make some minor adjustments still because it’s not sealed. Any suggestions?
Thanks, all. Appreciate the wealth of knowledge and experience that is LC!
Honestly, I love it! Your practice piece made me wonder if a little bit of metallics could make your piece pop even more by having smothering the light can catch. As with all things art there are always things you could change, but I think you did a really good job and I wouldn’t hesitate to gift it.
I’m geographically challenged so won’t hazard a guess as to the “where”, but I like this! It reminds me a bit of Michael Powell’s art, a little sketch-y in style but with an energy that draws the beholder in. Knowing that DK appreciates arty gifts, I can’t imagine she wouldn’t love this.
I completely missed the gold splatters, I was too focused on the buildings The problem with going back and adding anything after splatters is that it can make it look out of place since you’ll be covering any splatters that were already there so tbh I probably wouldn’t change anything after splatters.
I converted your image to greyscale to check the values and I noticed that you have a lot of midtones and little on the ends of the spectrum. Not something I think you could easily adjust on this piece but might be something to watch for in future pieces. It can be helpful to convert the source image to greyscale as well to help you get a sense for where to place your darkest darks and lightest lights.
Like I said before, I absolutely wouldn’t hesitate to gift this as is! I’m convinced art is never actually done, there are ALWAYS things that could be changed, it’s just when the artist feels like they’ve gotten what they wanted from the piece. I usually call my pieces done when I’m sick of working on them I’m confident your friend will love it!
In response to @photojenn’s comments about contrast and gold outlining and utilizing a technique I shamelessly stole from @spaceradish…I added a white/gold outline to the city. I may have ruined it but I think I like it better…maybe.
The original was great, but I do love the outline. I don’t think you “ruin[ed] it with the splatters,” but for me they did kind of blend the focal skyline into the background. The outline helps bring it back to the forefront.
Supposed to be Prague! I showed another mutual friend and she thought it was very sweet but I’m not sure she recognized it either lol. Guess we’ll see if DK does!
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(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
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She will…those are popular tourist sites…I have seen them in tourism ads and magazine as well as pics my sister took.
The problem with going back and adding anything after splatters is that it can make it look out of place since you’ll be covering any splatters that were already there so tbh I probably wouldn’t change anything after splatters.
I’m confident your friend will love it! 
…plus my sister just came back from three weeks in the area…ha ha