Painting grey without grey paint is a problem.
People often ask my why I use such bright colours. It’s quite simple really. When I first started creating these pictures I had 8 colours. Magenta, Process cyan, yellow, deep purple, black, white, orange and green. I use the paints neat and rely on them mixing on the page. It means you have to get creative with the process. Like when I did the Barbican.
Since then I have discovered there are more subtle and deeper colours available. I’m adding to them to fill the gaps, yet I cannot bring myself to buy a grey. I always find other colours I NEED more.
Then I go and decide to paint a grey building, with grey pavement and road, like this one.
At this stage, I question why I didn’t as I try to reflect the tones and colours, whilst having only black and white in the right chromatic range. Yes, I could mix them beforehand but that would be too simple, and, I suspect, less interesting. I like to live dangerously…
With paint at least. That means allowing the paint to mix and do what it will with guidance from me, of course.
Manchester has a reputation for rain.
That is unless you live there, and then you realise the lie. Having said that, there are plenty of grey buildings around. Take the fabulous Science Museum. If ever there was a candidate for the use of grey ink, this is it. But I resisted. This is how I did it. Here is the graphite image all ready for masking.
Next we have a close up of the Transport Museum in the early stages of painting.
Then more painting close ups.
Another close up with a group of figures.
Not sure what they were meeting up for. Possibly to visit the museum, but could have been there for many reasons. I’ll let you speculate.
Finally the overview of the finished painting.
Followed by the finished painting all straightened out and cropped, so it looks tidy.
And there you have it! Complete with Beetham Tower. Which always makes me think it’s going to fall over.
Enjoy the rest of your Day, next time I’ll be sharing another experimental piece, which I seem to have been working on forever.
You’ll understand why when you see it.
Incredible Cathy. I felt like I was there as you walked me through the entire process 🙂 And I love the creative use of colour, as I was reading I wondered if you;d crack and paint grey….
Thanks Sarah. Glad you enjoyed the journey. I’m still wondering when I’ll crack over the grey or take it to the other extreme. who knows, but then, that’s the fun of the creative process!
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