It is almost one year ago now, since I walked through the Alster parc, when the water in Hamburg got frozen and turned the lake to an incredible mood. After moving into our dream apartment, I fell in love with the quiet place in the middle of a metropolis area like the Hanseatic city is. Was it only a semblance of silence? On the other riverside, the City Hall and many cranes and construction extends itself. Who have thought that a mystical atmosphere could induced in the middle of a metropolise like you can see in the picture? Although I do not miss the coldness here in Lisbon, but it is always fascinating what can give you the feeling of express yourself.

 

I must admit that in my case it was a coincidence, because we stupidly put everything in the construction market for the new apartment in the shopping trolly, only the most important we've forgot: the canvas :D. Only between the whole draw equipment and building material we noticed the missing object. That's why I had to improvise and used the wooden board, which were originally intended for a cupboard.

 

As oil colour is very expensive, it is more practical to take acrylic for the background. You will see that acrylic dries faster and shines much more than oil. Especially in order to paint the city panorama, where the lights in the houses shine differently strong oil is much better. The facades simply look much more authentic because oil does not dry so quickly and the colours merge better.

Start with the sky and merge the colours on a wooden pallet. To highlight the clouds it is better to us a sponge. You can also roughly draw the water with a thicker brush in a blue-and-white mixture to produce different shades of blue. Do not worry about the untamed water, you can create it to your preference with white and black in the end. A tip: If you use a spatula and the sponge from the first part, you can manage to portrey the ice (I would recommend it at the end). Try out everything you want. If you have painted the sky and water rude, you can deal with the details like the panorama of the buildings and cranes. For that you need finer brushes. I mixed the oil colours brown, yellow, red and green (ONLY for the roof of the town hall). It's best to start from right to left and orientate yourself to the shapes of houses you see in reality. That gives you some ideas. To include trees between the buildings, use the point technique. For the reflection in the water, acrylic colours are well suited. Here I have worked with stronger primary colours which gives your painting a expressionisic touch. Finally, I added the boat dock and the posts to the water (colors: black, white, red acrylic) That happens when creativity is overwhelimng.

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