Notes

Update on Detroit

So I last wrote about the Detroit project in March of this year. This piece will be a work featuring the jazzmen on a rooftop playing against the Motor City’s storied skyline.

det_comp
The reason for the delayed update is that I had to put the project aside because I wasn’t fully happy with any of the concepts I had for the musicians layout. A few months ago, I thought I was close. I was leaning towards a configuration that had the pianist as the central player and the rest of the band scaled back, but as I started sketching it out at full size (for a 48 x 24 inch canvas) something wasn’t quite right. So with other matters to tend to as well, I had to put it aside. However, the project is something I that’s been on my mind for some time.

One morning recently, I was looking through some old sketches (for no particular reason), when I stumbled upon a sketch I did in 2012. It showed the musicians with no background, but angle of the main player was perfect for the building background and I clearly thought so at the time because I scribbled a possible title next to it, which read “Building Stage”. So here were the pieces of a painting sitting a book of sketches I did 3 years ago.

I’ll start work on the highly detailed building backgrounds in a day or two and then the musician additions thereafter. I’ve been looking forward to getting this piece done for a long time. The experience of getting to this point proves the importance of trusting your instincts and the value of looking back.

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