Oil Painting: Guangzhou (Canton)

There is a large European quarter in Canton, south China focussed around Shamian Island. This was divided into concessions and given to the French and British, who promptly started transforming the island into a mini London/Paris as was their wont in those days. Walking around it is slightly surreal as it's all so familiar even though I was thousands of miles from home.

I'm not sure if the subject of my painting is a French or British building. It doesn't really matter, I just wanted to make it into a ghostly monument to imperialism, a relic of a different age. As world power shifts to the east it is becoming an even more peculiar feature on the Chinese mainland.

I wanted to give the clock tower a ghostly quality so I lit it in a spooky white light and tried to keep detail to a minimum.

I used a bit of artistic licence with the street light which was actually much bigger but I wanted to make the colonial building the focus. The finishing touch was the red of the Chinese flag atop the clock tower, a foreign building reclaimed by the world's new superpower.

Spray painting - The Ratpack

A spray painted composition of the Rat Pack I was commissioned to produce.

Marilyn Monroe spray painting

Here's a recent commission I produced for my auntie who wanted a painting of Marilyn Monroe. There are a LOT of photos of Monroe but I thought one that was a little less well known and captured her in a more introspective mood would work well.

This is the one we decided on:

I then set about drawing it in 2 tones in Illustrator (with a third for the lips). The bottom layer is the grey, sprayed on first, then the black and finally the red.

With those drawn and printed out on A4, I drew a grid on them and massively scaled them up onto a large sheet of paper as the canvas is 90cm x 60cm.Oh yes, I hand draw my templates. With them drawn on 2 separate sheets, I then cut the shapes out using a scalpel. It's obviously important to leave your blank space open as any little 'islands' of white will be lost with the rest of the cut outs. Finicky? You better beleive it.

After all that, the spraying is the easy part although it can still go horribly wrong. I stick mine down using the terribly advanced technique of masking tape folded back on itself. This makes the lines crisper and stops the template flying away (like it did when I was spraying the red almost ruining everything). It also helps to spray outside unless you're looking for some hallucinogenic, fumey cellar fun.

And there you have it, Thoughtful Marilyn in 3 colours!

Higher Coach Road, Baildon

I have over the last few years been painting this road in Baildon over different seasons. In situ, sometimes in the biting cold, suffering for my art. It used to lead up to Sir Titus Salt Jnr's house, Milners Field and its overhanging branches would have certainly created a dramatic entrance to the long demolished mansion. The guard house still remains at the top of it, now someone's picturesque home.

Autumn - 2013

This is how it looked after the first day, around 3.5 hours in. I actually got a lot done again mainly using a pallette knife.

Due to incessant rain for what seemed like 2 weeks, I wasn't able to get out there again until today (the light would have been too different). The scene had changed quite dramatically with much more yellows and oranges. So I painted them in.

Everyone who passes makes virtually the same joke, namely "Did you get me in?" or "Did you get my best side?" or "Shall I walk a bit slower?" I laugh politely.

Summer 2012

Here's my effort from July last year from virtually the same spot. It appears much brighter and greener, as well you might expect. That's seasons for you.

Spring 2012

Painted in late March, does that class as Spring? Well there's not too much to suggest that anyway in this rather more sparse composition. Now all I need is winter...better break out the long johns.

Oil painting - Tianjin Old Town

This week I have been painting a street scene of Tianjin, the port town closest to Beijing. It wasn't a particularity nice place but had a picturesque old town. I thought that a busy street scene would contrast with the Bradford street scenes I have already painted, so this is quite a different composition to those. I thought it must be strange coming from the bustling streets of Indian and Chinese cities to Bradford's comparatively, erm, sparse town centre.

This scene is also peculiar to my usual in that it is taken from quite a low angle so has quite a lot of sky. Perhaps I was crouching? I started with the sky which in China, and Tianjin in particular is heavy with smog. I wanted it to look like a heavy lair below the blue sky, it really is unpleasant.

I then started on the buildings in the foreground in a particularity loose style. These shops are crammed with gift shop tat and coupled with the painted red and green building exteriors, it's quite an assault on the senses. Bradford looks so monochrome in comparison.

With the left hand side completed, fading into the smoggy background, I started on the right hand side of the street, which is a little lighter. All done using a palette knife as usual.

With the buildings completed, I populated the scene. Most of these people are taken from my photograph, although I added certain elements such as the dog because there was too much blank space. My friend Dan can be seen rifling through his bag. I also smogged up the background a bit more, notice it is lighter than above.

A few finishing touches - the string of lanterns was used to break the sky up a bit and I added more details to the building front left. I'd started in a looser style than when I finished and it stood out a bit. Looking at it now I think the foreground is a bit light, so I think I'll add a bit of texture and then it's done!

Oil painting - Talinn side street

After a bit of a break doing boring stuff like paid work I started (and finished) a painting yesterday of a street in Talinn, capital of Estonia. The old town of Talinn is remarkably intact and feels like you've gone back to the 14th century. And don't they just know it with daily Medieval duels in the town hall and crossbow lessons at 10 Euros a pop. My painting ops for a more atmospheric twilight scene with the peculiarly emaciated town hall tower rising like a minaret behind a row of shops and cafes.

After drawing the vague outlines in, I started with the sky. I like painting skies and because this one was a clear night it was pretty simple.

After doing some of the rooftops, I then filled in the building to the right. I didn't see it at the time but it was too lemony.

It's a shame I didn't notice as I filled in the details making it much harder to change the shade of the building later. I added the tables and parasol too.

Then  came the fun bit, the building in the background and the big sea of brown cobbles in the foreground. The background building is closer to the shade I want and contrasts with the cold palette of the building on the right. It would never do.

I then did the building on the left which proved to be simpler than the one on the right, although it has a more varied palette. Sometimes it's just how it goes. The light shining on the cobbles were vital in breaking up the brown so I had to get it right. Which I nearly did.

With a lot more detail on the windows and a figure walking on the cobbles, I could have called it a day. But I was still annoyed by the coldness of the building on the right. I could really only correct it while the paint was still wet so I stayed up last night carefully making it more orangey. I think the result is much more satisfactory. All in all not a bad composition, but I think I could have done a better job.

Riga oil painting

I've been working on another street painting (not the impressive chalk variety), this time Riga in Latvia. The street struck me as puzzling and oddly British when I saw it which is why I took the photo. It's in many ways a simpler composition than my last one but I've struggled with this one.

First I did and re-did the outlines several time. The perspective turned out to be a bitch to get right, particularly on the car in the foreground. I hate cars. (but I seem to have a masochistic desire to carry on painting them):

Then I painted the building lit by the bright Baltic sun. This took me bloody ages because I once again struggled with the perspective.

I didn't like the cleanness of the windows though, they were a return to my more detailed approach of old. So I went a bit crazy the following evening by slapping paint on to Sonic Youth which really freed up my style. I then spent the rest of the evening researching into Kool Thing, a song based on a particularly awkward interview between Kim Gordon and LL Cool J. Evening WELL SPENT.

Then I did the sky because it's fun and easy before starting on the building to the right. I STILL wasn't happy with the car though and spent about a month painting it again and again. It was too light to be in the shadow and too deformed to be roadworthy.

Here's the finished painting. I added a couple walking in the sun. The perspective on those pesky windows still ain't right, I may just have to tinker with them a bit. At least the car's better.

Warsaw Oil painting

Apart from the outlines, I did this painting in one day, which may be a new record for me. I decided on a street scene in Warsaw focusing on the Palace of Culture and Science, an example of Stalinist Baroque architecture. I am fascinated with this style, an odd combination of Communist brutalism, American Skyscraper and Gothic revival. It's a huge bloated testament to Stalin's huge bloated ego and easily the most visible building in Warsaw, totally compelling in it's ugliness.  Here's where my picture started:

I then added the sky and the main part of the building using a pallette knife as usual. I wanted it to look like it was raining buckets because, well, it was.

At this point I was pretty happy with it but I had to decide if I wanted to make it look like it was really raining. Art, as is life, is all about taking risks, so I attacked my newly painted loveliness with a palette knife like it was the bathroom door in The Shining.

Raining buckets see? I wasn't that sure I'd got it right but I carried on regardless. I painted the light in the building below Stalin's tower and then added the pillars, road adjoining building and trees.

Adding a car, lampost and lights, I put my palette knife through the it all again whilst it was still wet. I think my gamble has paid off, it's a very atmospheric painting. I think it captures my visit well.

Typography: Anicca

So I thought I'd have a go at a typographic project. I've recently been interested in the Buddhist concept of anicca, or impermanence and I thought the word would make an amazingly ironic tattoo. So I suppose this could be used as a tattoo if I had the will/balls to get one.

I started out with some initial concepts in a layout pad:

As you can see, some of them are pretty terrible, involving skulls and bowls of fruit and incomplete dhamma wheels. But hey, we've all got to start somewhere. However out of this brainstorming came this idea:

I liked the idea of life's impermanence as associated with anicca, so I thought a good way of showing this was to show a flower in the full bloom of life and then at death's door. "Not very cheery" you may well retort, but I don't think it's pessimistic, it's simply reality. That's right, my typographic projects have an existential point to make. "Not very well spelt" you may also retort and yes, you'd be right.

Getting the spelling correct again, I drew up this lettering using a grid and joined the letters together in a like cursive script.

Then I added the flowers. I decided on lotus flowers sue to their association with Buddhism and their effectiveness in this design. There was a lot of tracing and retracing involved before I had the finished design in pen.

This I then scanned in and traced in Illustrator. I neatened the rough bits out and although it doesn't look perfect, this adds to it I think as there's too much uniformity these days. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

Then I just added some colour. After playing about with different brushes in Photoshop, I decided that ink spots would be better, so I "borrowed" some from Google. I could have made them myself but it would just look the same as this, so I saved myself some time. SUE ME. Then just a blotting paper background et voila!

Oil painting: Day 3

I decided I didn't like the cobbles or the bricks because they were too detailed and were different in style from the rest of the painting. The cobbles weren't bright enough either, it needs to look like the sun's rays are bouncing off them. So I slopped a load of white paint over it and started again. The ground looks better now but still not perfect. I like the thickness of the paint though, it gives the painting real texture, although that's not too evident from these pics.

It was then just a case of adding some figures into it. I chose 2 Indian women but they're possibly a bit high up in the composition, leaving too much foreground. I might make the shadows of the people and building a bit longer to  break up that white space. Or maybe insert another boulder (as they were all over the shop in Jaisalmer). Or maybe re-paint the cobbles again. It's almost finished now, just a few last touches, I'd say. This is about 12-13 hours work:

Oil painting: Day 2

I got up early today and continued my painting. I want to capture the heat of Jaisalmer in this painting, because it's bleeding hot, lying as it does in the middle of the Thar Desert. I want to recreate the heat rising of the cobbled streets. Anyway here it is after 2 more hours:

It was at this point I realised I should have probably painted the sky first. I seem to do this every painting without learning from past. Next time! I think I like doing the fun bits first and I was listening to Sparks. They're not a sky kind of band.

So here it is at the end of the day. I'd say this is about 7 hours more work in total; getting there...

Oil painting:2 hours in

Right, I'm new to this so be nice. Even if i make some big clunking newb no-nos.

I've started a Blog to motivate me to do more art work. This may obviously backfire if everyone thinks my work's crap but them's the breaks. I am working on a painting at the moment of Jaisalmer in Western India which I visited last year. It's very early days but here it is:

This is 2 hours in, IT WILL GET BETTER. And that includes cleaning my palette which I lazily left daubed in paint last time I finished a picture. Oh it's in oils by the way and I use a palette knife. Join me tomorrow for more riveting updates, Paint-pickers!