...just around the block...

Hi Everyone, and a belated Happy February New Year to you all!

OK - I know I've been rather conspicuous by my absence from my blog for some months now - well, since October I think which is quite some time - but if you don't mind, I'm going to carry on as if I'd just nipped around the block (blog?), for a moment or three and I'm now I'm back.

What I'll do is carry on in real time, and fill in the lost month gaps as I go. 

My first appearance on Ely market.

...so there I was with my merchant's hat on in Ely market selling cards, prints, bookmarks, and of course - calendars! I'm dispensing tips and advice to anyone who'll listen - I'm easily flattered by anyone who thinks I know more than they do - when this chap comes over, points to the Eel Sculpture artwork on display, and says '...my house is behind that shrub, and is the most photographed house in Ely...' 

I explained that for composition sake I had omitted the houses from my drawing, but of course still had them in my reference folder.

The original pen & ink and watercolour painting appearing as May in the 2015 calendar. 

'Could you draw my house in there for me?' 

What - but the artwork's up there behind glass, complete with a pink sky - how am I going to draw your house in?? 

OK - it took a moment for the creative penny to drop.

Of course! - Print a copy of the black and white digital artwork onto watercolour paper and draw in the houses in situ behind the sculpture and shrub, ink the pencils and paint!

Pencil layout featuring brick wall and houses.

Which is what I did. Visiting Jubilee Gardens one more time for additional reference photographs, I managed to find a printer whose machinery could copy onto the slightly heavier watercolour paper, and we were in business.

Pen & ink stage of Eel Sculpture with houses.

The new pencil composition was agreed - with a slightly greater emphasis on the client's house - and in the style of the original the pen & ink stage was completed.

Keeping an eye on the original colour treatment, I rendered the pen & ink artwork similarly in gentle watercolours laying in the sky with a brush at the last moment, having masked the houses and immediate background elements.

The enhanced view of the sculpture from Jubilee Gardens in colour.

To retain the continuity in the depth field I brought the colour of the sky into the foreground sculpture highlights.

Adding a little more pen & ink detail to the architecture I arrived at the finished work. 

A big thank you to client David for commissioning me to produce a rather unusual piece of work featuring new and original art creating a sum greater than it's parts.