This was a longer term project... over 6 weeks. I am not sure how many hours but it was 40-50 maybe. I didn't realize until this was done that is part of a series of 3, really 5 that started in 1989. I original took a black and white photo of the reflection and then years later used it for a pen and ink drawing. In the drawing the reflected parts were all done with stipple work. I gave that drawing away. something I regret since I gave it to someone I no longer have any contact with. I don't even have a photo or photocopy of that drawing. Then I did a drawing of a crane reflected on the Hancock which was fast and easy. That encouraged me to to try a large one of the old John Hancock reflected in the new one. Then I sort of forgot I did all that until I came across the original photo and decided I should maybe redraw that illustration for myself. On a visit to Boston I took all new reference photos and then... forgot about it again! Finally I started but instead of a pen and ink I went full colour.
This has about 20 layers, the window frames are on one, the interior lights we can see through the reflection are on another and then a couple for the sky etc. When It can time to paint the church I went window by window. Since each panel had 3-6 layers I had to merge them down as I went or maybe crash the iPad with literally 1000s of layers open. I would draw for a few hours and then look at the illustration overall and see I still have something like 87 window panes to do. I kept pugging away until finally it was done.
Below is a closeup of the part of the drawing. A both complimentary and frustrating part of doing something like this is when I send it to anyone they think it's a photograph because they are almost always looking at it on a phone and never realize the work that went into it. The other image is the original 89 photograph. I could not get the exact angle matched up because there is a lot more stuff going on there now and that angle just wasn't available and other things were blocking the view.
