Lunch Break

One of the things I have noticed as an artist is that if you look carefully at the colors you are actually seeing, they are different than what your mind tells you they are. This painting is a case in point. This is a downtown scene at around lunchtime when the sun is nearly overhead. Instead of the street being black and the sidewalk gray, they are almost white, as is the sky. You will notice several reflections in the window of people and cars. Above the window is shiny stonework that reflects the buildings that are across the street. I have used linear perspective because the street goes narrower and the buildings get smaller as they go back. Atmospheric perspective is also used – the people and cars get smaller the further back they go, and they also show less detail. There are some facial characteristics on the closer people, but the ones further back have none. All of these things show depth.