'Photoshop'

I themed the piece around the industrial revolution: a time when the pioneers of industry were experimenting with flight. Commerce was at a boom but this was at a cost to the environment, therefore I wanted the balloons to be almost reaching for some fresh air, out of the smog of industry.

A bit about brushes: for blocking in I used a soft round brush (Fig.02) with a Wacom Intuos 4, which has pressure sensitivity. For the mid details I then started with the chalk brush no 36 (Fig.03) and painted over again to get a free, impasto effect. I blended the work with the same chalk brush, but instead of using the paint brush I used the smudge brush with the finger painting option selected. This enables you to paint with the smudge and not just smudge what's already there. This technique feels really nice, like real paint blending and yields good results. Try it out!

I studied the elements of the building and drew up a quick composition to get a general feel for the placement of the balloons and the towers. These were going to be the focal point of the piece and secure the composition to two strong vertical lines which led your eye up and out via the balloons. I always study composition very carefully when painting, as a good composition can really make a piece of work sing as oppose to bark.

At the start I blocked in the broad masses of basic tone. I usually do this in black and white as I don't want the complexities of color just yet (Fig.04). After the main masses were blocked in I begin adding mid scale details such as windows, still in black and white (Fig.05).

I kept adding details until all the main details were complete (Fig.06). As a tutor of mine once said, “We start with a sweeping brush and finish with a needle”. It’s important to concentrate on the bigger picture first and work your way down to the detail. The reason for a monochrome base painting is the same as the master painters of the Flemish period. They used to work this way in their training to discipline themselves and also to not get too carried away by color before they had mastered their tonal values. Once mastered they would continue to work as if they were tinting a photograph, tinting the monochromatic under-layer or dead layer. I like to work this too, in the hope that some of that old spirit will rub off on me.