Angelo is now a regular demonstrator and always very popular. With his lively style of talking constantly about what he is doing he keeps the audience wonderfully interested and amused. He told us  the  scene was Piccadilly Circus and he had started by using a white primer and mixing and diluting some acrylic paints he already had. This he used to map out the major shapes of the buildings and to position the figures. He then used a purple acrylic ink to etch in some outlines of the buildings and the people.  

 

Angelo said he was ‘easing into the busy scene’ and making sure to keep eye level at

about one third of the way up. He explained he would be building up the layers with glazes of acrylic paint leaving the ground transparent. The purple acrylic ink he applied with a pointed line brush to get a sense of shape, place and proportion. Nothing was too exact at this point  and he said he would have to decide soon about filling in the shapes more accurately. He was getting a feel for the movement of the piece and had deliberately left out some of the figures because of the time constraint.

 

Using small square or rounded brushes and loading them with white, yellow and orange he worked on the people. He was using almost a Lowry effect with matchstick men. As he worked he told us what he was doing. ‘Just dipping in and blocking in some colour – so

I’ll eventually build up lots of blocks – what we call ‘cross form’. So I’m starting with figures tentatively’. Working on the main figure in the foreground, Angelo used the same brush and colour to block in and make sure the figure gave an entry to the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Angelo worked on the figures he would often use the same colour for the heads.  As

he worked, a car appeared as well as a figure on a bike!   Movement now became apparent and part of the painting.   Angelo now used a little orange for the faces – ‘the colour can be toned down later’ he said.  He went on to use a dark blue to add detail to some of the faces.   Using a big flat brush Angelo was able to indicate vertical and horizontal lines. With a sponge he drew it down the building getting a great texture. Although it was the wrong colour (according to him!) it ‘didn’t matter for blocking in!’ He used the big brush again to highlight and shadow the buildings and then started building up colours in the sky. He took out a fair amount  of the  building  that  he  didn’t  like and thenwith a smaller brush put the lines back in again with more control this time. Using whatever colour he had on the brush he added more blocking in and then detail of windows and archways. Suggestions of shadows and reflections were now going in with brushstrokes giving a suggestion of movement. Perspective lines on the ground provided quite nice shapes and led the eye.

 

 

Angelo stood back to take stock and started putting in a little more detail. Toning down some areas and working on some of the figures: blocking some together to make a crowd scene. He put in some Lowry like dots for faces on the heads. Angelo used his fingers with white paint to dot and smudge  in. With watered down acrylics and a small sponge he worked in some beautiful glazes - ‘so long as the underneath colour is dry you can bring some warmth in with an almost transparent red’. He used the  blue to cool down and give depth to some areas. He mixed red and yellow and then with small strokes warmed up some areas. He then used the yellow vertical through diagonal strokes to warm up between shadows. He showed us how to use a light glaze to make an area misty or foggy. Opposite use of colour now and dark blue into the sky to deepen and knock back areas like this. He worked now with glazes and put more colour into his girl in the foreground.

 

A brush which was slightly thicker, rounded again but with hog hair gave him coarser strokes for sketching in some tones and shadows. Angelo showed us a scumble glaze technique dragging it through, laying on very dry and flat giving fuzzy edges. Working even more quickly now with this technique he was breaking up the colours. With the big brush he drew in some verticals. Then to demonstrate the palette knife he drew more vertical shapes as well as scraping the colour. He used this technique to add interest to shadows or to add tone to areas. Using the palette knife as a drawing tool he added more depth by using paint more thickly on the hair of the foreground figure. ‘Palette knives are quite good  –  they make nice marks and can even give you curves’ he said demonstrating this as he explained. ‘A scrape can give an idea of lettering.’ Then using a thin brush he added to this illusion. ‘Let’s put some auras in!’ he said. Back-lighting figures gives you a suggestion of depth. Finally he added red dots for features in a face looking towards us. ‘These final details focus you in – it could be a line – it could be colour. Use these impressionistic accents to introduce form.’ Using the aura idea he gave his people characters. ‘Might just be a simple brush stroke or blocks of colour to indicate detail in an impressionist way’.  

 

With two minutes to go before the end of the session he said ‘now we put back the light!’ He took up a muddy white to block in some negative spaces to break up the foreground and then with orange to warm up some spaces. ‘A dry brush, drag it through – break up these spaces.’ Then yellow to add  some lights to the buildings and it was done! Alive with light and shade, colour and movement.