Virtual Paint-Out: Packard Factory Detroit Michigan

I haven't submitted a sketch painting to Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout for a full three years,...let alone done any drawings to write about in that time. Nonetheless, I have remained a fan of VPO (and other sketch sites), and have continually mused about doing some more drawing/painting again. (I don't know about you, but these drawing/paintings take a lot of time.  They don't come easily to me.)

Having grown up in the Rust Belt (northeastern Ohio), this month's choice of Detroit coincided nicely with my renewed interest in sketching/painting.  So...once again, I logged in and began to wander the streets.
I had remembered reading about the Packard factory on David Byrne's personal online journal (He has an excellent section with his impressions and thoughts about Detroit) and was surprised to discover that I could get up close enough to it on StreetView to get the kind of composition I was looking for.
It's a huge automotive plant-built in 1903-that was abandoned in the 1950's after the once fabled Packard luxury automobile lost its appeal through mis-guided mergers, economic conditions, and regrettable design and business decisions.  To me, it is the quintessential poster child for the decline of the northern industrial cities of America.

So...greetings to all of my fellow participants.  It's good to be back.
Google Maps reference location here

Virtual Paintout: Prince Edward Island

A quick pencil sketch-washed with color-of a sylvan scene of Canada.

(Scanner let me down on this one.)

Virtual Paintout: Hong Kong

I am utterly fascinated by the plethora of A/C units, drain lines, electrical wires, plumbing supply pipes, support cables, cantilevering signage, steel bracing, clothing, and the rest of it that is so clearly visible all over the facades of almost all of the older downtown buildings and so much a part of the exterior urban street scene of this exotic location.
I chose a view that had a high concentration of these visual shapes. This is my impression of Hong Kong.
To me-as a person in the building business-this speaks volumes about the decades-long introduction of "modern-day conveniences" into the lives and homes of more and more people and reveals the inherent dilemma of where to put the layers of new infrastructure needed to accommodate the increasing demands for comfort.
I thought this kind of vision was only found in movies like Brazil and Blade Runner; but now I see it is more common than I realized. And not only is the visual plane a cacophony, I can only imagine the ambient din on the street itself.

Reference photo from Google Street View here.

Virtual Paintout: Czech Republic

Here is yet another submission to the monthly challenge for The Virtual Paintout: a street scene in Prague. I picked this shot as an exercise to try and capture a sense of glass and reflection; but I am also drawn to the electric tram buses which typify the vibrancy of the European cityscape.
Reference here

EDM #100-Draw a Landscape (Canary Islands-VPO)

Well...missed the end of the month deadline for the VPO again. It isn't like I had started this and didn't finish, I just needed the weekend to work on it and the monthly cut-off fell on Friday. Anyway, since I spent a lot of time during the month wandering for a location, then thinking/planning about it, I wanted to 'do something' after all that; so I didn't let the momentum die but rather come to fruition irrespective of an arbitrary deadline...not to say I won't be trying to bring it in under the wire in the future!
Luckily, I can very easily catalog this piece as EDM Challenge #100: Draw a Landscape. (EDM is the first online challenge group that drew me out of a lifetime of not drawing/painting: thanks to everyone in EDM).

Google Map Street View reference here.