Peter Insole
Western Thunderer
Here is another post to put some more pictures up on this thread...
Unfortunately, as the complexity of this piece started to dawn on me I let the photographic diary keeping slip. I'm glad that I did remember to take some though!
Having already mentioned my concern for the fragility of the medium and considering just how long each picture takes to complete, I have found it necessary to always start work at the top left corner.
While accepting that individual artists will adopt all sorts of different techniques, generally speaking, those who work in oils enjoy the ability to allow a painting to "grow" on the canvas. By that I mean; If some part or colour doesn't work as intended, the paint can be scraped or cleaned off and then new applied. As my medium of pencil and gouache is not fully opaque and relies heavily on the background paper colour showing through and influencing the finish, it may be evident that I have almost no room for manoeuvre once I've started!
From the very first marks applied at that top left, I have to maintain a very clear idea in my head of exactly how the rest of the picture will look!
That may be many weeks, but more often several months later!
If I am distracted during this time by some other tasty, intriguing project, I usually find it extremely difficult and occasionally almost impossible to "pick up the thread" from where I left off. I have ended up abandoning rather too many pictures, and indeed other jobs, that are the result of this!
It may therefore come as no surprise to anyone that I do suffer a form of "stage fright" when the prep is finished, and that critical start point is reached? The last two or three pictures that I had been working on had all "gone horribly wrong", and that was quite a while ago as well, so this time my confidence was at a fairly low ebb.
Getting this important picture off the starting blocks was imperative ... and so I had rarely felt more like running away?!
I didn't though...!
The whole upper part of the image had to be smoky and thus deliberately "soft" toned.
This requirement was twofold; for it was not just an integral part of the overall scene, but had to allow the book title, either in open text or on some form of banner to sit over it without being overwhelmed. That was something that added even greater concern than usual for me!
I let it get the better of me, and ended up thoroughly overworking it!
Oh dear, not a good start?
Spending a couple of extra full days fighting with it rather set me back. Perhaps that is why I was not too keen to take photographs before moving on to the next stage?
Now for the interesting bits...
Ooops! Some of those "Vinolia Soap" lines were a bit off there?
The sooty stuccoed retaining wall and arches had provided a welcomed relief though... (Sorry)!
Underpainting all the signage. Sometimes tedious and always very time consuming, strangely I rather enjoyed this part! There is some extra pressure with this though, as we are so familiar with graphics any mistake has the habit of glaring out for all to see!
That was a couple done... but with a good few more to go...!
There are also a couple more details that I would like to point to here as well:
So far, no photographs have come to light showing the interior of Walham Green station in the chosen period. All the signs had to be selected from nearby and/or contemporary images. All of course where black and white.
Having collected more than sufficient examples, I then spent hours trawling through loads of auction websites. Search-words only ever seem to work occasionally, but more often throw an awful lot of confusing and confounding rubbish up at you too? Perhaps the more appropriate description would be "ploughing?! Anyway, at the end I had enough good matching examples showing the original colours to work from.
But then I'm not actually mixing those colours.
This part of the picture represents a surface that is furthest away from the viewer - and seen through a slightly smoky atmosphere! Every tone is basically a mix of yellowish, brownish, blueish grey!
Again I had to be careful. Overdoing it even slightly could really cause dreadful problems when I got to the foreground?
Mmm..., maybe could still have done with knocking it back a bit more...?
Pete.
Unfortunately, as the complexity of this piece started to dawn on me I let the photographic diary keeping slip. I'm glad that I did remember to take some though!
Having already mentioned my concern for the fragility of the medium and considering just how long each picture takes to complete, I have found it necessary to always start work at the top left corner.
While accepting that individual artists will adopt all sorts of different techniques, generally speaking, those who work in oils enjoy the ability to allow a painting to "grow" on the canvas. By that I mean; If some part or colour doesn't work as intended, the paint can be scraped or cleaned off and then new applied. As my medium of pencil and gouache is not fully opaque and relies heavily on the background paper colour showing through and influencing the finish, it may be evident that I have almost no room for manoeuvre once I've started!
From the very first marks applied at that top left, I have to maintain a very clear idea in my head of exactly how the rest of the picture will look!
That may be many weeks, but more often several months later!
If I am distracted during this time by some other tasty, intriguing project, I usually find it extremely difficult and occasionally almost impossible to "pick up the thread" from where I left off. I have ended up abandoning rather too many pictures, and indeed other jobs, that are the result of this!
It may therefore come as no surprise to anyone that I do suffer a form of "stage fright" when the prep is finished, and that critical start point is reached? The last two or three pictures that I had been working on had all "gone horribly wrong", and that was quite a while ago as well, so this time my confidence was at a fairly low ebb.
Getting this important picture off the starting blocks was imperative ... and so I had rarely felt more like running away?!
I didn't though...!
The whole upper part of the image had to be smoky and thus deliberately "soft" toned.
This requirement was twofold; for it was not just an integral part of the overall scene, but had to allow the book title, either in open text or on some form of banner to sit over it without being overwhelmed. That was something that added even greater concern than usual for me!
I let it get the better of me, and ended up thoroughly overworking it!
Oh dear, not a good start?
Spending a couple of extra full days fighting with it rather set me back. Perhaps that is why I was not too keen to take photographs before moving on to the next stage?
Now for the interesting bits...
Ooops! Some of those "Vinolia Soap" lines were a bit off there?
The sooty stuccoed retaining wall and arches had provided a welcomed relief though... (Sorry)!
Underpainting all the signage. Sometimes tedious and always very time consuming, strangely I rather enjoyed this part! There is some extra pressure with this though, as we are so familiar with graphics any mistake has the habit of glaring out for all to see!
That was a couple done... but with a good few more to go...!
There are also a couple more details that I would like to point to here as well:
So far, no photographs have come to light showing the interior of Walham Green station in the chosen period. All the signs had to be selected from nearby and/or contemporary images. All of course where black and white.
Having collected more than sufficient examples, I then spent hours trawling through loads of auction websites. Search-words only ever seem to work occasionally, but more often throw an awful lot of confusing and confounding rubbish up at you too? Perhaps the more appropriate description would be "ploughing?! Anyway, at the end I had enough good matching examples showing the original colours to work from.
But then I'm not actually mixing those colours.
This part of the picture represents a surface that is furthest away from the viewer - and seen through a slightly smoky atmosphere! Every tone is basically a mix of yellowish, brownish, blueish grey!
Again I had to be careful. Overdoing it even slightly could really cause dreadful problems when I got to the foreground?
Mmm..., maybe could still have done with knocking it back a bit more...?
Pete.
