Stop, staring in Fitzrovia
An experiment on A1 paper…
This is a London cItyscape, based on pictures I took one afternoon when walking through an area which some people call Fitzrovia. I call it ‘that bit North of Oxford Street’. I don’t really know much about the rules governing this kind of thing – you know, where EXACTLY does an area start and finish? Is it governed by a road? If so, which side of the road? Or the line in the middle of the road? If so, where in the line? This side? Or that side? Or the middle of the line? If so, how wide in the line? An inch? A centimetre? A millimetre? A nanometre?A femto…. you get the idea. Anyway, I reckon if the Post Office tower is looming over you toward the North, and Oxford Street is behind you, you’re in Fitzrovia. This area has a real ‘feel’ to it, what with the combination of offices, shops, entertainment venues and cafes all bustling alongside each other here – a real ‘happening’ feel, yet also somewhat dated. Although maybe that’s just my interpretation, based on my history and experience(s) here, throughout the nineties… Anyway, this is also my first venture onto a bigger canvas – much bigger, in fact. A1. ‘Going big’ like this, demands much more detail as regards the drawing of the buildings and suchlike in the background, so I’ve devoted more time to this task, but still, I don’t want to try and replicate every brick and post, more the feel of the architecture – the hues and gestures…
I also now want to start producing some cityscapes whereby a central figure (not necessarily in the centre, but central as regards interest) is caught, almost transfixed by the camera, standing still whilst everyone around is rushing and fluid. I therefore had to experiment with this basic idea, but my worry was that too many lines across this figure would render it (snigger) incredibly difficult to see – too messy. I did a couple of experiments and I think I was proved correct, so this meant that this one, staring figure, had to be drawn first. The trouble with ink is that, once it’s down, it’s down. That’s the good thing for me – what a challenge. A troubling challenge? Yes…
Therefore, as I’d spent a long time on the background, I had to test out the standing figure on tracing paper first, to decide where it – he – should go, and also the level of rendering. Having done this, it’s time to bite the bullet, pull out all the stops and stop with the cliches and produce something I’m very happy with…
