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Manhattan Skyline Watercolors #009Z

Lower Manhattan skyline #581A pen & ink cityscape watercolor with it's reflection in the water.

This article is about Manhattan skyline #009Z watercolors, which are for sale at discount with prints by artist Stephen F. Condren, BFA-SAIC, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery, offering JPEG & PDF scans. This article is about Manhattan Island which I have created watercolors of for making prints.

Manhattan Skyline Watercolors. Key elements of this work of the Manhattan skyline are as follow:

  1. Make sure the lighting of the day is not overcast.
  2. Clear all obstacles and elements that may obstruct your view.
  3. Use a good angle for setting up your perspective so as to incorporate all of the building proportionately.
Watercolors and prints of Manhattan impressionist skylines from Central Park at sunset.
Watercolor of Manhattan skyline from Central Park at sunset.

Manhattan Skyline Watercolors. No other city in the world can boast of the skyline that Manhattan Island has. The invention of the sky scraper started here (many will argue that the Home Insurance building in Chicago was the first but that is speculative) and it continues to grow.

Manhattan Skyline Watercolors. Key elements of this work of art are as follows.

With the invention of the elevator in the 19th century and in conjunction with modern construction. New architectural construction methods the path was paved for the development of the modern skyscraper. It makes sense that Manhattan Island was the first to really take hold of these giant towers because it was the largest city in the country. Already businesses had set their wheels in motion on Manhattan so it made perfect sense to stay there. All of the banking firms and of course the New York Stock Exchange made Manhattan a destination for business. So with the growth of business and a small plot of land Manhattan was destine to grow tall.

Manhattan Island’s skyscrapers are clustered in two regions, the first at the bottom or downtown in the financial district. This is where the World Trade Center was located along with many banks and insurance companies. Further north on the island is Midtown Manhattan. This is where there is another cluster of buildings (the most notable being the Empire State Building) which is close to Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Chrysler Building being the most famous buildings of the group.

Manhattan skyscrapers

With the advent of the skyscraper the city took on a new look and could be seen from miles away. The skyline of Manhattan is distinctive because of its thick cluster of tall office buildings. Being located off of the Long Island Sound gives Manhattan a wonderful setting for artist to do drawings and paintings of this great city. Many artist have made prints so that they could reproduce them for tourists and also make stationary or note cards. The works of many New York artists can easily be seen with a simple Google search of Manhattan prints. The wonderful thing about the Manhattan skyline is that there are so many angles that you can paint from. Very popular are views from Central Park looking down the tree-lined path to the skyscrapers rising above. Manhattan is truly a destination for artist to make watercolors and prints of their great city.

Stephen F. Condren ~ Artist

312-303-0207

School of the Art Institute of Chicago ~ BFA