Robotic Painting Process.

This picture all started ages ago when a took some photos of steam boilers at Tanfield railway. Tanfield railway is the most amazing scrapyard come museum where they turn a blind eye to you climbing all over rusting hunks of dilapidated steam trains.

I thought the boiler had a sort of robotic look so I split it in half on photoshop and made this comp to try and capture the look of a deflated and dejected robot so sick of his own existence or so tired after a hard life of serving his human masters that he could barely hold the weight of his own head any more.

I started out with acrylic on hard board and tried to get some of the shapes in, I was working at my now long gone studio space so I had plenty of peace and quiet and very few distractions.

The mood is starting to fall in place here but the colour is no where near strong enough for what I was thinking.

I think here that I had tried to follow the photo too faithfully and the piece had suffered. I think you should only use photos to inform the painting never let them dictate what it will be in the end. After all I should just be a photographer if I wanted the image to look like a photo. I was happy with the way the composition was going but the picture was definitely very lacking in dynamic and colour at this stage.

I made the switch to oils here and started to add some wild gold titanium aspect to the surface of the robot, maybe a rusting corroding bronze tint to his flesh. I also removed the arm on the left as it didn't fall correctly with how I imagined the anatomy of a robot would work.

I was definitely getting some good vibes at this point but I thought the face was a bit forever knights from Ben Ten and the background lacked a little in the contrast department.

Here it is all finished, I really like how the lighting came out in this, the way the head melts in to the rays of light from above and how the light breaks through the rafters. Happy Days. The greens on the dials and instrumentation are a little wild but as a whole I think it just about works.

Take Flight

I really like how this pigeon turned out, I might be progressing my photoshop skills after all.

South Shields, urban centre for drifters and low life's.

Just some sights from my hometown last weekend. Riding feels way more proper in South Shields, I guess its just what I grew up doing and the place has a certain magnetism for my style. Like maybe Shields was the creator and all that I am functions better there. Aint no chance that I'd ever move back though, it doesn't matter how much I miss those boys, theres just nothing going on there other than the riding. For some reason 30 people were out riding South Shields last week, it was like 1985, 1996 or 2001 all over again.

Urm? Why did I get fired again? 

Sticky tape shouts to the boys!

Sandman's hat, it's funny how spots go round and round, we stopped riding these flat rails in 2000 deeming them 'not burly enough', its 2014 and the kids are all over them. 2 inches above peg height is so 2014.

Papa Wu.

Pour a sip on the street for my Fallen Angel. 

Crushing Strength

Newrick is showing a short film about concrete architecture in the North East. It's being shown on loop at the Guildhall on the quayside as part of the Newcastle city futures exhibition. Depression, brutality, beauty and monolithic power all courtesy of Newrick's eye for a great shot. Don't miss it. 

23rd may - 10 June

www.ncl.ac.uk/apl

Another Pigeon

More Pigeons. I had to chop up and get rid of my table, I don't really have anywhere to paint and draw anymore! I do have plenty of time to practice my photoshop painting. One layer, multiple brushes.

Pump Up The VOLUME

BMX bikes got so burly in the early noughties that some of the components produced back then will literally last forever. So much material went into making these bikes it would take a close proximity nuclear blast to fully eradicate them from the face of the Earth. Even then they might survive in part. They are the cockroach of the bike world. Sprockets over a centimetre thick, plain gauge chromoly in super oversized tube diameters, USA BBs and beefed up headset cups, triple wall 48 hole Alex rims on solid spindle 14mm hubs with high flanges and freewheels, Mo-ped chains, Primo rod solid steel seat posts, the bikes of yesteryear were a brutal bludgeon compared to the razor sharp scalpel precise machines we have now.

This is what I believe to be a Volume Dinosaur and it came into the workshop for a freewheel replacement a couple of weeks back.

Everything on this thing is totally overbuilt, double clamp seat post clamp, stem the size of a house brick, huge super fork style ahead pretension nut, tiny thick gauge bars, meaty and thick alloy pedals. The primo grips must be over a decade old and have been revitalised with electricians tape.

Sporting the NSF sticker on the 39t chainring, this kind of shit makes me proud, No idea who the guy was riding this brute of a bike but he still carries the love for his northeast scene, and pledges undying love for his comrades of the street.

Getting this thing in the scales was no easy task

Woah!!!
Some Ebikes weigh less than this!

Props and maximum respect go to the rider of this beast, keeping it real in the most awesome way and worshipping the gods of Chromoly through his suffrage and effort out on the street !!!

The Satisfied Wizard

I've been looking at the signs above pubs a lot recently. Pub sign history goes back a long way and is highly politicised. The only reason that I'd ever want to be a pub landlord would be so that I could give my pub a crazy name. Here's a quick go of a pub sign with a bit of a fantasy slant.
29 x 40cm Oil on board