All my portraits are in storage unfinished as I lost the will to complete them, in part not knowing when to stop and being bothered by the fact that they look like cartoons. I couldn't find any middle ground that I was happy with so for the last few years I've stopped with the idea that I might come back to them.
It's now 2021 and I'm inclined to have another go and this time I'm attempting to paint the Tilbury Collier signal station. Partly inspired by a painting that used to hang in the barbers my mates and I used to go and have our hair cut at. It's gone now and it used to be in Southend road near the library it may have been called 'Micks barbers' or something. The painting was impressive as I recall - quite big 30" x 24" maybe and probably done in oil? I'd love to see it again and wouldn't mind owning it. Thinking back and considering the them, I reckon it might have been the work of local artist John Wonnacot as it had the same or similar style.
At this stage, I've been able to find 3 ropey B&W photos of the building and I'me starting to work from them, but I reckon I might need to go down to Tilbury and take some photos of the area where the building stood to get more of a sense of the space and the light.
Anyway I've made some studies in pencil, ink and water-colour today as I work out how I'm going to go about it...
No. 001
No.2 In the 1970''s and 80's there was at least a large radio mast in the foreground with this angle, I might add that. There was also a square building which may have been a air-raid shelter or a concrete shed in the foreground, but I don't think I'll add that.
*Found another photograph, that's a lot better than the ones I've been working with. Unfortunately it's from the back again as are 3 of the 4 that I've found to date. But the radio masts are in the photo and it's an image that's more like how I remember the signal station to be.
And another photo, this time in colour from the Thurrock Gazette, the shame is they're so poor in quality. I've been looking to see where the entrance door is and in this TG image it appears to be at the front. In the image it appears to be open, but there's no frame as such at the top of the door and it doesn't make any sense, so I'm going to have to apply some 'Artistic licence' when it comes to the details at the front and possibly elsewhere, the steps for instance aren't clear in any of the shots.
28/8/21
No cricket today should have gone to Derby but was cancelled (Covid related). So I've been working on the Collier signal station trying to make sense of the details in the image which are not visible in the reference photos I'm able to access. I've done more sketches today and I'm currently playing around with Photoshop in an attempt to work like Kieran Gabriel. I messages him today and he said that it took him around 15 years to hone his technique and method. No wonder it's taking me so long!
This is my attempt so far at going with the David Rayson kind of approach which I've already tried twice before but never actually finished. I've done a lot more with it than what you see below...
Thinking about this some more, I then remembered Google sketchup and the potential for that to be integrated into this process, so now I'm thinking should I explore that, as that's potentially a fast way of doing it once you've learned how to use sketchup? Speaking to others that do similar stuff to this, it's evident that there are many way of skinning a cat. One of the main issues I'm having at the minute is the perspective hence the reason I went for sketchup, but Joe (My son) says people work from Photographs to get the size and perspective.
Without any suitable photograph I'm now considering photographing a simple box, then importing that into Photoshop and use that as the skeleton (base) on which to hang components of the image as above? Something like this...
But with far more options. It seems I either make a maquette or do something in Sketchup. Update I've got Joe onto it, he's doing the 3D modelling part in Sketchup. But like me he's an impatient short cut artist who doesn't quite learn how to do things 100%. There's also the factor that if I demand it be better he'll get the ache and long it off.
Joe's had a go and this is what he's come up with and it's pretty good...
I like this angle as this is pretty much impossible to create by taking a picture of it as it'd involve parking a ship in the river opposite it in order to get the shot. So it's a good angle.
