This oily, steaming contraption caught my eye one morning as I walked past a construction area. The guys on the road crew called it the “soup machine” and they used it to spray a layer of glue-like tar for joining sections of the road surface.
Gray markers on bristol board, 11 x 15 inches
published in 1982 in The Artist’s Guide to Sketching
I came back on a Sunday when the site was deserted. I picked a low angle and silhouetted it against the sky, with the lines of perspective leading back behind the blackened engine mounted on the tank.
To convey the feeling of the smoggy day, I lightened the values of the more distant area. To create the sky gradation, I used a cotton rag that had been charged with black marker dye and gently rubbed across the surface.