The Basilica at Dusk
I still remember my last trip to Rome when walking along the River Tiber late afternoon, I was fortunate to take a photo from the Bridge leading to the Archangel’s Castle towards Saint Peter’s Basilica.
The lighted Dome and the busy Plazza in front of it are just a few of the main attractions for a viewer of this scene.
The powerful imagery lays in the middle of the reference photo, so for this composition, I choose to crop out most of the wall channeling the river as well as the marginal buildings.
My simplified study would focus on the upper part of the Dome, the one that can be properly planned by the gradating sky. All the other plans are rather sketchy being used to proper present the Dome in perspective.
I was debating whether the lamp posts to the right side of the Dome should be painted as a diagonale of light (but muted) in order the guide the viewer’s sight towards the focal point.
At this stage of composition, I still maintained the massive lamp post in the foreground in front of the massive tree. Both shapes are used to properly encase the main subject of the painting providing some sharp value contrast with the sky in the background
I painted this composition on a half-sheet cold press 140 lb of fine grain Arches paper, with a limited pallet of 5 pigments from Daniel Smith feeling that I could mix the neutrals, warms and cools alike from that set. I used a touch of Permanent Rose, and a lot of Ultramarine Blue, Burned Sienna and New Gamboge for my painting.
It took me some iterations to figure out how to draw the Dome to stay true to the reference photo.
I figgured out a simple method of drawing half circle arches centering on either sides of the lower border of the Dome.
All other shapes were relatively easy to draw next because they are there only to support the view of the massive cupola in perspective.
For scaling of the sight, I place a bunch of figures along the edges of the channel wall such that to hint towards the cupola and provide a size reference in the composition.
The result of my painting is quite satisfactory. The paper never buckled and I was able to maintain washes well.
