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…so let’s see if it might work?

 

 

This week I wanted to experiment with an idea I have had for a while – a long while, actually. That is, inserting a more ‘fully-drawn’ figure into my ‘sea’ of outline people, yet still within a greyscale, ‘suggested’ background. I’ve long thought this could be quite dramatic, and would open up another world of questions and suppositions therein. But, more importantly, would still look good…

Rather than create from scratch, I wanted to see how this would work with existing artworks, which I have done over the last year. The first is an experimental – aren’t they all? – cityscape I did whilst in Aarhus, Denmark, last October. I had drawn this whilst sitting near a bus stop on Park Alle, opposite the Town Hall. The original piece (where I had experimented with blue splashes for the sky) only featured 1 outline person drawn in black fineliner, so I added some other figures and then, rendered more fully, an image of a model from one of my reference books – you can see the process in the accompanying images. The background and structures are drawn in Warm Grey, whereas this figure is rendered in Cool Grey. I like this effect…

Next, I used an image I had created in Bangkok, Thailand, from December. I had sat at the bottom of a stairway leading to a network of walkways and ‘squares’ which ran over the roads (it’s weird, in Tokyo, Japan, they have a similar system but everything is BELOW ground – in Thailand, it’s above… I wonder if that’s something to with the climate?)… anyway, I’d drawn an abstract(ish) capture supposedly representing the movement of people’s hearts, heads and feet during the time I was there. Again, I added in a figure from the 1920s, which in turn gave me another idea for the future. Oh dear. So much procrastination, so little time…

Lastly, I referred to a Cityscape from December back in London, based on pictures I took at the Millenium Bridge, facing Tate Modern. I drew this Cityscape again, very quickly (as you can see), and added in one fully rendered figure from my reference pictures. The mistake I made here is that he is walking… don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. All in all a very worthwhile experience, which should result in some wonderful pieces over the coming few months…