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Monday 26 December 2016

How I painted barber shop...

It was the 8th of August this year when I've been in the city centre of Leeds chasing my new subject matter for my new project (It's necessary to get exited about your subject, otherwise you setting yourself up for failure). After unsuccessful time in streets (which is not that often because streets of Leeds are filled with interesting topics for painting - I just didn't feel it that day) I discovered this great barber shop right in Corn Exchange called King Koby Chop Shop: 


These guys are cool lads who know how to trim and the environment in their shop is just stunning. I politely asked them If I can make some pictures and made my camera clicking like hell. 
After 2 minutes (Yes I didn't want to be inconvenient there) I had a bunch of reference pictures:



Reference shoots for my project

After making these pictures I went on my holidays and when I get back in September my work begun. I stared with some preliminary sketches to have a feel for my subject matter. I wanted the picture to have a little spark of caricature but not too overwhelming - something similar to work of Norman Rockwell whom I admire. I love his pictures of people and I strove to do something similar.

On these pictures you can see sketch on the left (to warm myself up for a painting process) and finished "underdrawing" on board already prepared for painting itself on the right. I chose not to over exaggerate the characters. 


Some preliminary work

And finally there's the final product. It's a fairy big painting (28x20 inches) I took me about 2 weeks to finish it - mainly because I had to do it after work so I had like 2 to 3 hours a day. I wasn't in a rush either so I listened to the radio whilst painting it. The process itself was really relaxing due to fairly finished underdrawing which I didn't change throughout the process. To be sure that the drawing was gonna guide me all the time I put a graphite fixative on it before I started with painting. The name of the painting is "Don't worry mate I've got that under control"  - you know why - sometimes even the most trustworthy person with a trimmer behind your head could cause you to have a tough times :-D
But don't worry -  It is just for a sake of a interesting name of the painting. These guys trim properly! 
So I suggest when you're in Leeds with some wilderness on top of your precious yourself give the guys a try!


"Don't worry mate I've got that under control" (oil on board 28x20 Inches)

If you would be interested to purchase this piece, write me an email. 

Have a nice boxing day everyone. Hope your Christmas are quiet and peaceful like mine.

Petr




1 comment:

  1. Your preliminary drawings are beautiful! I like the painting too.

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