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...