On Monday, I requested a location with a view on my Facebook Wall and my HS friend, music executive Theresa Notartomaso, responded immediately. Thanks to Theresa, my easel and I found ourselves in front of a stunning view on the 19th floor of Headroom Digital‘s studio on 26th and Madison.

With VH1, bottomless coffee, occasional massage chair break and conversation (thank you Claudia) leading the way.

Setting up shop – I wasn’t sure whether to paint the Empire State Building or the Chrysler, but I am a sucker for water towers.

A quick, rough sketch to nail down the composition.

An under drawing with crimson to get the feel.

Whenever the blue sky hits the canvas, it is on.

A secondary layer with Hookers Green – ah, complementary colors.

A second round of measurements and outlines, and it’s go time.

While buildings don’t necessarily reflect a season, this particular scene felt like fall.

In with some warmer red tones.

Matched with a round of muted blues, and a lighter sky.

Working around the canvas with the big three primaries – blue, red, yellow.

Now with some warm, reflective greens, filling in the Chrysler Building, doing the bull dance, feeling the flow.

Painting windows on a skyscraper is like navigating a hot waffle iron, it’s relatively easy and mundane, but one wrong move and you will get burned.

Detailing the buildings from the top down, working each color around the entire canvas.

Working around the off-whites, looking to create distance in the landscape.

Working secondary building planes, and window details.

A few nice mint green highlights, covering some copper detailing on the buildings.

Detailing the sky, and adding some small bits of light blue flavor throughout.

Final details in red.

And the final. Thank you Headroom Digital, Theresa, Jerry, Samantha and Claudia for the opportunity to paint in your beautiful office space. Up next, a painting of the bridges from the downtown office of all-star advertising agency SS+K starting Monday, October 5th.