Monday 16 August 2010

The Slug and Lettuce, Leicester.


You know, life is so much more convenient these days. Back in the 60's and 70's, if we were out and about and saw something interesting that would make a good photograph, chances are that we would not have our camera with us. Even if we had, it would likely to be a large bulky affair, with which you would need to know how to adjust the settings for available light, focus and make sure you made allowances for the viewfinder being offset to the lens and of course have some film in it etc. So unless you were very lucky, you wouldn't get the shot.


Nowadays of course, you can walk around with a camera in your pocket and not even notice it was there. It can even be integrated with your mobile phone - something else that was uncontemplatable back then. What's more, these newfangled digital cameras will work out the exposure, set the focus, recognise faces and work out out so many things automatically and we come to take them as granted, unless of course you are one of us more seasoned of photographers!


Although I visit Leicester everyday in the course of my work, it is only very rarely that I actually walk around the place at my leisure. So when I did just that a few weeks ago, having a camera on my mobile came in very handy for taking a few pictures, which would come in useful as subjects for a piece of artwork at a later date.


This painting is one such piece of work. Originally, I planed to do just a quick sketch, but it turned out to be just a little bit more complex and detailed than I expected. I opted to use watercolour and pen on an A3 bristol board sheet as with the 'New Walk' painting. The colours are a little bit washy but this is only meant to be a sketch and I didn't want to overwork it. At the end I did need to use a little white gauche for the slug and lettuce motifs, as it would have taken too long to work around the letters with the paint, and anyway the paint would be drying out too quickly before the wash was complete. OK, I could have masked the letters out with masking fluid if I had been a purist, but I can never do a neat job with that stuff. In any case, it is much simpler just to add those tiny touches of gauche at the end.


I am happy with this work. It is a little bit blueish due to it being a photo of the finished work, but the original is a clean white. I don't think I would have done anything differently - if you think different, let me know.
Thanks for reading.

14 comments:

  1. Just awesome !!! love it to bits! ... It's so you!

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  2. @Alice - so me, yes. Hope I'm not getting too predictable!

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  3. I really, really like it! And I mean everything about it! I actually enjoy looking at this type of artwork more than any other - the sketchy type.
    The two peices of art work of my own that I like more than any other are on the first post of my blog and yet they are so much simpler than most of my other work - Why I haven't done more like it I don't know, but I will!
    How long did it take, Frank? And would you ever attempt a sketch like this on site when there are people around?
    The only problem with Gauche is that it never seems to be white enough. In my own experience I have often found that a white pental gel pen works better for picking out highlights which have been lost along the way, but it depends how bigger area you need to cover. I'm inspired Frank - Thank you!

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  4. Frank, serious kudos for this one. I would so love to be able to paint like this. The "wishy washy" colours are perfect and your characters are amazing, in fact, it's obviously a popular watering hole as I can see John Major just left of centre with Elton John right behind him. Hat's off to you Frank, I could look at this time and time again.

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  5. @Sandra, I looked at your first post and yes, they are lovely spontaneous looking paintings where you haven't gone too far with detail and precision. I will be eager to see more like that.

    This sketch took two sessions simply because of the large amount of activity going on in the picture, an hour or so for the pencil sketch and about two more for painting. Any longer, and I think I would be getting bored - you know how I feel about this! I have in the past painted a fair few landscapes 'en plein air', and it is marvelous to sit in the sunshine outdoors painting. But I would not do this nowadays as I have trouble sitting for any length of time. I also wouldn't have been fast enough to attempt to do this sketch on site!

    You're right, gauche is not really white enough for large areas, but tiny bits are OK I think. Maybe I should think about using acrylic white, or even the watercolour white that sits unused in my paintbox?

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  6. LOL John!, your imagination is running away with you. Yes, it is Elton John up there at the back, but John Major might be pushing it a little. Thanks for commenting.

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  7. I wonder what everyone is talking about, and what there eating. A day in the life.
    Watercolour is wonderful is'nt it?. Plein Air on my dear.

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  8. Yes Melanie, watercolour is wonderful and is my favourite media.
    You can read all sorts of things into what is going on in this scene. I imagined this: the thin guy on the right is reading the latest romantic novel while his overweight wife is tucking into yet another cream cake. The young lady with her back towards us is secretary to the boss sitting next to her who has taken her out to dinner. The guy at the back who looks like Elton John is reading a copy of the Times, while the man in front of him in the white shirt is studying the horse racing odds, and the young couple in front are talking about their wedding plans!

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  9. You can organize a story writing competition on this. The mood has been beautifully captured.All your paintings are beautiful Frank. It is difficult to believe that you have just started. Keep posting.

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  10. Thanks for looking in and commenting AK. Not quite true that I have just started to paint, just that I picked up my brushes again this year - the first time since 13 years!

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  11. I think it's an excellent sketch. I love the soft colors and that you've left it sketchy. I've just commented on your last post, so I feel I should find something that may need work...and this is after really searching, so I suppose it isn't really a problem at all, but the guy sitting in the chair, to the left of the girl with her back to us, his arm looks a bit large without the back of it delineated. But maybe this was part of your keeping it sketchy? I really like this scene.

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  12. I know I didn't spend enough time on that guy in the chair Raena, the photo is much too dark to make out any detail, but I think there's a combination of his arm and leg there somewhere. I love it when you spot these things - keeps me on my toes!

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  13. Frank, I like your scenes with figures - the street/city life scenes.

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  14. Thanks Liana, get a great buzz out of painting people, something I always steered clear of in the past.

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