Painting Development : Lock Shop
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SEE HOW THE PAINTING PROGRESSED, (Step by Step):
Scroll down to see more!
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Background and Inspiration:
Okay… I’m on the bus. Staring out the window in that sort of daze you get when you are tuned out to the noise of the outside world. I’m looking at the shapes, colours, textures of the buildings as they flash past me. Then, as the bus turns the corner, I see it… Standing out as if it had never been there before… The ‘Lock Shop’. Why hadn’t I noticed it before? This is strange… why?
It is flanked by a non descript corner store on one side and a large hardware chain store not far away on the other. The hardware store dwarfs the Lock Shop in terms of physical size… but it just doesn’t register. All I see is an old building… hanging in there proudly. It’s vacant, yet has stacks of soul.
It has magnificent detailing on its upper face and windows which look out over the street. Next to it is another tired old building of similar age, but not with the character of the Lock Shop… However that old building is linked to the Lock Shop via colour and the fact that it is sitting there, shoulder to shoulder.
What is bizarre is that I have seen this building for at least the last 2 years and never noticed it before. How could I have missed it!!! Now every time I pass it, it sort of says ‘hi’ to me like an old friend. I’m getting to know it more and I can’t wait to get it onto canvas!
So… I head out there with camera and sketchbook in hand. Exciting!!! Right… back to the studio to play around with ideas.
Soon after, I am getting my haircut at my local hairdresser (which is a few hundred metres down the road from the Lock Shop). I’m discussing this old building. He tells me that it is marked for demolition! The site is going to be redeveloped and many of the buildings on this corner of the block will be demolished. The ‘Lock Shop’ will be gone!
What?!!! Now I definitely have to get this building onto canvas!
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1. Getting Started!
Right… into it… Canvas has been coloured with an earthy base colour. While this dried, I took time to carefully work on the composition. It’s only a couple of buildings… but like all of my images; I need to feel confident in the composition… Because, no matter how well a painting is rendered, if the composition doesn’t work, the painting will fail!
Composition is now finalised and is marked on the canvas. All looking good… However… I made a last minute decision to leave out a building from my finalised design. It worked in the sketches, but when on the canvas, I decided that it had to go!.. It was altering the focal point of the image. I can’t have that!
Now I am happy with it. I will leave the linework to dry. While that is happening, I will move onto my second work ‘in the pipeline’. That one is a portrait.
So… More to come…
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2. Yaaaaawn…
Here I am, its almost one o’clock in the morning and I realise that I have been tinkering with this sky for over 2 hours! Where has the time gone? When you paint, time just disappears without you noticing it… I LOVE THAT!
I have to imagine how the sky will impact on the adjacent part of the painting. I often find that starting a new work is sloooooow. But I’m heartened by the fact that momentum soon builds on the painting as a whole; and progress accelerates too.
The blue area to the right of the image took the longest to render. Why?! It’s not that complicated! After 2 hours, I’m pretty happy with the sky. So it’s off to bed now. I’ll be back in the morning with fresh eyes to do minor amendments. Here’s the progress so far…
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3. Sidetracked…
Today was spent finalising a composition for my next painting. So no progress on this painting today. On the upside… I am pleased with how the next paintings composition has progressed.
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4. Distracted…
Another day and I am distracted by that other painting in the pipeline. On this painting, I have worked on the buildings, but only briefly. Added some architectural features and worked out some colour mixes. That was it really. The other painting had more linework marked up in preparation for beginning that work with my full time focus.
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5. Momentum!
This was one of those sessions where it went really well… Great sounds playing in the background. I’m listening to Talking Heads Live album ‘Stop Making Sense’. Is it the best live album ever made? At the moment it feels like it is! Everything in my studio is working in harmony… Nothing to distract me!… Love it! Love it! Love it!
So I’m laying down some great colours. A bit of tweaking here and there, but overall it’s coming along nicely. I’m happy with the progress on the top of the Lockshop. I’m on a roll… so I’ve got to keep this momentum rolling. Two hours in and I’m feeling good!
Here it is…
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6. Brushes – A Love Hate Relationship
Okay… I have been guilty of picking the occasional cheap brush for my paintings… more than I should have.
Most of my brushes are moderately priced. The cheaper brushes I use are for blocking in main colours and the others for finer work. Cheaper brushes have the downside of wearing quickly and not dispersing loaded paint well. That’s the trade off for price; and I have to admit it’s never been an issue for the initial work of laying down colour.
Now I’m feeling a bit crazy (and with the pockets lined with some extra dollars)… I decide to try a top quality brush. Now was it worth the extra spent on it?… Hmmmm… lets take a look at it…
Bristles are nice and uniform and hold their shape well. The ferrule interfaces with the bristles nicely as well as the handle. The handle itself is solid and smooth; and is a nice balanced weight. So far so good. All looking very sexy really… but is the seduction of this sleek looking brush going to live up to its looks?! Lets see. Time to take this baby for a test run…
Whoa!!!!… I’m sold! It performs just as well as it looks! Makes it soooo much easier to lay the paint down exactly where I want it. Really nice hold. Feels great!
As my painting sessions progress, I find myself gravitating to this brush all the time. Those lesser brushes are looking like the sad little toothbrushes seen on TV commercials… moping and moaning to each other in their jars about the flash new kid on the block. I just keep finding myself picking up the new brush all the time… This brush is my new best friend!!!
Those other brushes look very sad and dejected… Probably because they know their time is almost up! I will start phasing them out in favour of better quality ones.
Hell… I can’t believe I am so excited over this brush… or that I wrote all about it!
Right… after all that reading, I can’t go without posting an image. Here’s the latest…
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7. The King of overmixing!
I have this habit of mixing waaaay to much paint for the area I am working on. I think I have been burnt by the fact that I have been caught short on larger areas of colour with difficult colour mixes. Anyway… here I am; staring at a palette getting overloaded in paint. I’m running out of room! I don’t want to scrape off some of these rich colours… but I need more room to mix fresh oils…. aaaargh!
Now I can’t have too many entries without an image. The image here shows the bottom of the columns flanking the windows. Like it?
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8. ‘Arch’ Enemy!
Three hours pass and I have been mucking around on the painting. Tweaking a bit here… a bit there. Most of the time seems to have been spent on the arched windows. I thought I was rocking along nicely on them. I cleaned up and headed off to bed.
Next morning I came in for a look and a final ‘adjustment’… Like I do on most mornings. But… you know; I’m just not sure about the arches. I’m just not happy with them yet. So I will get a cup of tea and have a think about it. Then time for some adjustments.
Or I might just move onto another part of the painting and come back to revisit the arches… but I know those arches will be sitting there… Laughing and taunting me until I have adjusted them to my satisfaction. Curse you evil arches!… curse you!
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9. Blowing Smoke…
Well its not really at the moment… but I am working on an area that was… The chimney. Went pretty smoothly. No hassles really. Nothing more to say there.
The real achievement was that I addressed the issues I was having with the arches. More work on the rendering and a slight change was made to the geometry. It has to be remembered that this is an old building and that in no way am I doing a photo realistic, geometrically perfect image (that’s obvious). Many of the lines are off balance… just slightly. This overall adds to a vitality to the composition. If it was a straight up perfect translation, the composition would lose its energy.
Having said that, I did feel the need to very subtly alter the geometry of the windows. Before changing them, I asked for comments on the arches and I was told that nothing was wrong with them. To me though… I had to tinker… Fusspot!
I’m happy now. Next I spent some time on the windows. Went fine and I think I am happy with them… but don’t discount me ‘adjusting them’ again. Now I’m moving onto the building on the left. Weatherboards… here I come!
Here’s progress so far…
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10. Weatherboards
Right… I am here and ready to block in a large area of weatherboards… Firstly, time to get down to mixing up that deep reddish brown colour.
All mixed up and once again I realise that I have mixed up far more paint than I needed!
I’ve now applied a lot of paint and I am getting a feel for how the weatherboards should be rendered. Chugging along nicely.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!… I have been working and working and overworking these damn weatherboards. Starting to get frustrated. I’m not in the right headspace at the moment… but will keep plugging away. It’s not as smooth as the last session I had.
Right… call it quits for now. I am moderately happy with progress. But I know I need to move on.
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11. Yellow and Brown…
Been working on the yellow and architectural features above the windows. Slow going again, but the light is at the end of the tunnel now.
I’m going to add the start of the ‘white’ sign on the side of the building now. No text yet. Just the white area. This will help me get a visual balance of the colours being applied.
Here it is…
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12. Windows and Metal Handrail – Hold on tight!
A good session here. Managed to complete the last of the windows in more or less one session. I only had to revisit the shadow on top of the windows once.
I also added the handrail in front of the windows. It doesn’t look that sturdy! I wouldn’t want to lean against it or… aaaarrrrrrrrrrr… thud!
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13. Roofing Iron, Fingers and Bananas… and Michael Jackson
Fresh session… Fresh music in the background… I’m into it!!!
Wow… session going really well. Progressing quickly and I am feeling good. Music is playing in the background is Michael Jackson. Just watched his ‘This is It’ DVD, so I am now in a MJ mood. Had to put on some of his music for this session.
Say what you want about the man… but he was very talented and his concert would have been amazing! A shame that it was never meant to be. I’m really enjoying his music at the moment. Seems to help me connect to the painting. It’s amazing how that listening to great music impacts on your work. Feelin mighty fine at the moment… Whoa… have strayed away from talking about my painting… Focus Mark, focus!
Now about the roofing iron…. As I said; all is going well and after slow progress on the weatherboards the roof is rocking along really quickly. I think I know why the weatherboards may have taken so long… I was thinking too much about the detail. It’s like fingers and bananas! What?! I hear you say? What does fingers and bananas have to do with roofing iron?
Well, the roofing iron is like painting a hand in portraiture. You have to look at the mass as a whole. Don’t focus on the fine details. Paint it all at once. If you paint each individual finger on a hand you end up with what looks like a bunch of bananas. They become separate entities which are not connected, even though they look similar. The roofing iron is the same.
It’s a point I have to keep reminding myself… ‘I must remember… Use a bigger brush thank I normally would use first to block in the main masses of colour first. The detail will fall into place as I refine these areas’.
I think the roof says it all. Looks pretty damn fine!
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14. Texture
I was walking through my studio at just the right time of the day. The late afternoon sun was hitting the canvas at an angle which showed the texture of the work.
I love this image. It really shows the brush strokes of the oils… Nice impasto as they say!
You can see the difference with the corner of the painting which has a shadow on it. This shows how the painting will look like in normal conditions.
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15. Last piece of the Roofing Puzzle and…
Just like a jigsaw, I had one last piece to finish the roof area. All done now.
Once again I have altered the painting from ‘reality’. Nothing that would effect the look of the building. I simply extended the iron across the front facade. Half of it had come away in reality leaving timber exposed to the elements. Just didn’t look right. So I covered it up with ‘new’ old iron. All done!
Now its onto the bottom section of the painting. I started with the large white sign at the bottom left (words will be added later). I also added the ‘decking’ that the handrail bolts onto. Finally I added the curled up butynol which is coming away from this surface on the right end of the deck.
Here’s an image of those items completed…
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16. Verandah Roof
My strategy for today… Great music… Focus… and get into it!
* On with some relaxing music in the background – CHECK!
* My mind in the right headspace to be creative – CHECK!
* Desire to buckle down and get the verandah done in one hit – CHECK!
And the results?… Well take a look and see what you think. I’m very happy!
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17. Verandah Posts
Time for a change to the building. The next section I am working on is the posts which support the verandah. I’m not going to change how they look in terms of size, shape etc. I am however, going to change their colour.
The original colour was a deep green. Whereas this looks ok in reality; for the painting, it just won’t work. I am going to change the colour to be more in line with the window frames. This will provide a visual link which will help unify the bottom of the building with the top.
Here are the posts finished…
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18. Empty Shop Frontages… Light it up!
Rocking along again… with good momentum. This sessions task : to complete the store fronts of both buildings.
Not much to say… went really well. All done. Then I looked at it and my original composition. Should I add the lights to the bottom of the sign on the left? Hmmm… I originally wasn’t going to… change of heart… Now I will.
That’s what I love about painting. You can change it as you go. All of these ‘adjustments’ help define the painting.
And the result?… Love it!!! Great definition on the lights. Strong contrast against the background shadows. Great! Now I can imagine the sign with text on it. It is going to look fantastic!
Here are those lights…
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19. Butynol – Get me some more!
Hmmm… just been looking at the curled up butynol which has come away from the decking. This is exactly what it looks like in reality. Just doesn’t look right here. It looks isolated.
Solution – Extend it along the decking. So I did!
While I was at it, I added the text to the sign below it (‘ANTIQUE LOCKSHOP’)
Take a look at the image…
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20. Signage – Make the painting pop!
Some text has been a struggle… some just went really well. I’m very happy with the ‘CHIPS’ text. Went quickly and looks exactly how I wanted it. The ‘Burgers’ text took a little longer, but turned out great too.
Here’s the image…
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21. Final touches – FINISHED!
Wow… I can’t believe it… Some minor tweaks and highlights are added and the painting is finished. All signed and done!
Like all of my paintings… I have had ups and downs. Parts I am happy with; and parts I wish turned out better. And again; I have learnt more and grown as an artist. But overall, it is a huge feeling of accomplishment. Fantastic!
I hope you have enjoyed watching it progress. Drop me a line and tell me what you think.
Right… onto the next work!
See you soon.
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