3D prototype at Tamworth
Read more to see some sketchbook images PLUS a 360 degree which works on iPhones & iPads…
No gloves
This piece was painted in THE worst temperatures I have ever painted in. It was minus 6 with a very consistent wind blowing directly under the A51 in Tamworth.
The wall took a total of 6 hours to paint alongside muckers Fluid & longtime collaborator and friend Meek. There was a loose concept which actually got discussed, even had sketches to help plan it a bit more. The main concept was that the wall was breaking/cracking in a scene of armageddon (Tempo was celebrating his birthday, and he pleaded for the jam to have this as a theme)
My lettering was paying respects to Tempo slightly with a black & white scheme like his paste-ups, Fluid with a tight camouflage scheme, and Meek with a Kel piece in honour of Walsall’s finest graffiti legend “Johnathan Kelly”. I painted a chainlink Chu similar to the Berlin Freestyle. Barbed wire, other smaller chains and searchlights continued the war zone theme. For hours I had pondered the newest component to my graffiti; a bit of anamorphic projection, or 3D street art, or whatever seems to be the name for this most misunderstood technique. Basically it looks like an object or part of the scene actually exists in the painting but is only an illusion, seen from the correct position.
The cable of the detonator even went over the small curb stone, casting shadows like the box to the detonator itself. The experiment paid off with quite a pleasing effect ,best to explore this in more detail. I realise this isn’t a new method of causing nausea, there are other pavement artists working in chalk, for example. As you can see from the painting for Blackberry in Manchester I painted last year, aerosols are wonderful tools for this technique.
Even in black & white paint only.
Sketches
Here’s a few sketches made the day before at The Bench and vibing with Fluid. There were going to be these little impish silhouetted miners, each of them smoking and wearing white vests, with a helmet equipped with a lamp – a tribute to the miners of South Staffordshire. Pity we weren’t sponsored by coal on the day… Honestly, almost freezing were it not for there was no moisture in the air.
360 degree Panorama
Bit of a special experimental one this is – Meek has been working with long exposures and light photography. The 360 below shows what it looks like when mixed with a 360 degree panoramic image. Just click the image to launch the viewer (close button appears bottom right). Please let me know your thoughts & how you get on with the panorama below , especially all of you looking at this through a portable device, cheers.
The panorama above is the first in a few new things I’m working on. I have been photographing things in 360 degrees for some years now. For the last year I’ve been merging a few more of my disciplines into a digital online experience and something is almost ready to go beta (that’s the stage before alpha, general release). More news as that develops.
More of Meek’s handywork with ‘Heavy Light NTC’ can be seen on the Midlands only graffiti site dedicated to aerosol painting & photography www.400mlheroes.co.uk.
