After 4 years of avoiding all street art related activities I decided to get back in the ring this week with a new mural. A lot of fears have been put aside over the last few months and getting back outside to paint a little something for Ruby just felt like the natural thing to do. Thanks to the good people at @31thirteenart I was given a pretty high profile wall on Hanbury St, a renowned hub for a lot of great street art over the years.
Instead of going down the usual route I thought I’d challenge myself a little more with this one, considering the reasons behind the piece. Instead of cutting a few large and undoubtedly awkward stencils, I taped a piece of chalk to the end of a stick of bamboo (thanks Matisse) and drew the basic shapes out before painting them in with cheap emulsion. Choosing to paint in this new, untried and untested method – for me – in front of a constant audience and several street art tours a day was probably not the best idea, but it didn’t go completely wrong.
Image courtesy of @tanyanashphoto
The wings were taking shape until it started to get late in the day and I found myself rushing a little. I got a little too busy with the BLACK and didn’t get down from the ladder to take in the whole piece from a distance as much as I should have done. I overcooked the shading on the face too, not sure why I went back and added more as it was looking fine as it was, apart from the impressive chin which needed a little surgery.
As unhappy as I am with the final piece I really enjoyed the process and feel like I have quite a bit to take away and think about for the next wall, which will be a big collab piece with a fellow stencil artist in a few weeks time in west London. Massive thanks to everyone who came buy and stopped to chat, who helped out (young master Joe in paticular), to James Sharrock and Doug from Fifth Wall TV for documenting everything and to the kind people who arrived with cold beers. What a great couple of days.
