Now that school is out, I’m trying to finish this poster. The end is definitely in sight. Here is the update…I added the Apollo fountain, jeep, cricket player, opera singer, and fisherman. The top of the poster is almost done. I have a couple empty spaces where I’d like to fill in a couple missing items. I will probably add a rugby player right above the ferry. To the left of the Sydney Tower, I want to add some more details from the Royal Botanical Gardens. The bottom of the poster is where I will be spending most of my time. I extended the Queen Victoria Building and the bricks to eliminate the white space. I have a couple more figures to complete. Plus, I want to add in a couple drinking coffee and the night markets on The Rocks. After that is done…it is time to add in the details. I’d like to reference a couple streets and the 2000 Olympics. I wish I knew of some famous Sydney residents, but it doesn’t help that I am an American. I might have to avoid that because I don’t want to just add someone like Crocodile Dundee for the heck of it.

As I look at it now, I know this is going to be a success. The feel is definitely different than the Chicago poster which was part of the plan. I wanted it to be similar so you could tell it was the same artist, but I didn’t want it to be just another landscape poster. I’m very excited to complete this!

Isn’t it too early to think about the next poster when you haven’t even finished Sydney? In short, no. I have found that if I prepare the next idea before I finish the one I am currently working on, it is easier to keep the ball rolling. The picture above is the rough sketch for my third city landscape. This time, I am going to take some liberties with the subject matter. New York City is an obvious choice for a landscape, but I am going to take it in a different direction. If I could pick anytime to live in history, I would choose New York City in the 1970′s because it was the birthplace of hip-hop. I know that New York City was not an easy place to live during this time period, so I tend to have a very idealized vision of what it was like. When I have read or heard people talk about this time period, they tend to emphasize the positive and downplay the negative. The landscape will really be my vision of this time period. It will highlight the 4 elements of hip-hop (MCing, DJing, break dancing, graffiti), and a few of its famous structures and icons like Times Square and the Empire State Building. Also, it will include a lot of summer in the city images like kids playing in a fire hydrant and basketball. This landscape will also be a slight departure from the others because I plan on inhabiting it with many more people. I will include a lot of famous MCs and other random characters. And, since Saturday Night Live found its beginnings during this time, I will sprinkle in a few famous characters throughout the scene. I still have a few decisions to make, but I do like to keep my options open as I think of more things to add. I’m very excited to start this work…hopefully, in just a couple weeks!