BT Storytellers - Basketball test event

Back in August (Ahh yes, I vaguely remember sunshine...) in my capacity as a BT Storyteller I was lucky enough to attend one of the test events at the 2012 Olympic Park in Stratford, not far from where I live in Walthamstow, east London. I had tickets to watch an evening of matches at the basketball arena, including Team GB v France, and I was asked to produce a piece of artwork inspired by the event.

Well, a mere three months later and I've finally got around to completing my painting and uploading photographs of the work-in-progress, which you can view below.

I've tried to convey the shapes, colours and movement of the athletes, and the contrast between the tangle of limbs and the straight lines in the structure of the arena. I like the way the ball appears to hover in mid-air, almost like a full moon suspended in a night sky.

Starting point. A pencil drawing on paper, my trusty watercolour set (which I've had since art school days), and a selection of brushes. I find this stage absolutely terrifying.

How will it turn out...

Starting the background colours first. I used paper which is fairly thick, but not proper watercolour paper, as I wanted the paper to curl slightly when wet - I find this results in interesting patterns in the paint instead of a uniformly flat finish, which is the effect I wanted for the background here.

When using watercolours, it's important to allow each section to dry before applying a new colour next to it, otherwise the paints will bleed into each other (unless this is the effect you're after). I'm incredibly impatient though, which is why I use acrylics for my mural paintings - they dry very quickly.

It was at this stage, nearing the end of the painting, that I realised I'd painted the orange background over the net - which should have been white. And I have no white watercolour paint (traditionally with watercolours, for any white areas you simply leave the white of the paper to show through.)

So I cheated and used some white acrylic paint. Sshhh, no-one will ever know...

Photograph of final painting.

Scan of final painting.

Me outside the basketball arena at the 2012 Olympic Park.

It's a jungle out there

And so the jungle mural at Grafton Junior School is complete. I've had such a great time at the school. The kids have been brilliant, and the staff so welcoming.

It's been a challenge coping with weather extremes (we've had pretty much every type of weather except snow), but I've loved every second of the experience and I think it's the best mural I've painted to date. I only wish I could bring it home with me.

Here's some pics, the first few show the mural panning from left to right.

As the foliage is growing down onto the wall, I decided to carry on painting the leaves onto the wall post.

I added a little gekko to one of the trees.

Each of the trees has the year of the children whose handprints created the "leaves."

420 handprints = 4 palm trees

The Grafton Junior School mural continues apace.

At last, after being rained off for days (I know, in English summertime, who'd have thought it?), I was finally able to get round to painting the children's hands to form the leaves of the trees. I'd painted one tree for each year, years 3-6 at the school. All 420 children got involved, with each child adding their own handprint to the wall for posterity. Most of the teachers and staff at the school joined in too, including the headmaster.

I've also added a few details to the leaves, plants and flowers, and painted the giraffe and the chameleon. Though you may not be able to spot him. He's very good at hiding you know.

Miss Holloway from Year Six gets involved

Can you tell which band she'd been to see the night before?

The red flowers on the plants are also handprints

Bringing up Baby

So, my tiger has caused quite a stir in the school playground. After the fifth child shouted "Your tiger is sick!" at me, I asked a passing eight year old if this was a good or bad thing, and was assured that "sick" means "good" in Young Person Vernacular. Phew.

Today I painted the snake and the leopard. I usually have a song in my head relevant to whatever I'm painting (when I started painting the lions, a group of children helped me out by singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"), and when painting the leopard it was Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby", from Bringing Up Baby. If you haven't seen it, you really must, it's a brilliant screwball comedy and one of the best films ever made.

Anyway, may I suggest you click on this link to a Youtube video of the fabulous Hepburn and Grant singing to their leopard to accompany the latest paintings below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dTBdhmvjrQ&feature=related

Lions and tigers..

Today most of the teachers at the school were on strike, but the mural artist was hard at work.

I filled in a few more of the silhouettes, painting the lion, the lioness and the tiger. I have to admit that I'm extremely proud of the tiger! I was a bit nervous before I started, as I wasn't sure I could do it justice - but as it turned out, I'm really happy with the result.