Wickle Lewes, in progress

I have started inking out Wickle...love the front of this shop! I still need some characters to go in there...Wickle had previous incarnations as the home to Clothkits and prior to that it was a furniture and homewares shop for at least half a century. Wickle itself has homewares and clothes that continue a tradition.
so...who else to go in the windows??...

detail of latest painting

I have just finished my latest commission. Cant put it on here just yet...but here is a very small detail.
Now I can get back to my drawing of Wickle. 

Bow Windows all done

Here is the finished Bow Windows...had fun painting lots of tiny little books!
The finished painting will be framed for the next Chalk Gallery exhibition which starts next Monday, along with my painting of Symposium.
Now back to some commissions...

Happy Birthday Bertie

Just heard it was your 15th birthday Top Dog!  This is for you!!

Bow Windows in progress

The pen is down and I am ready to paint

I let the blue wash dry at an angle to help me get that gradiated blue sky

First colours down...

 I have been working on Bow Windows bookshop. There are some big windows to fill now...

Arctic comes to Sussex

Had to post this, just to show those of you in the sunshine, what has come to Sussex today.
The March winds are stirring up the snow and making it feel soso cold! Friends of hours were stuck for 12 hours on a local road last night.
How can this be spring in Sussex? I am sure this time last year I was sunning myself in the garden...

Wickle plans

There is a pretty shopfront on the High Street, for at least the first half of the last century was a furniture  shop and undertakers agents!
Now a jolly and very child-friendly mini department store. They also sell a mean chocolate brownie in their little cafe at the back of the shop...
Not sure who should go upstairs, but I want the window to be a rainbow of colour and inquisitive children...

Symposium finished

Here it is, all done now. I really enjoyed painting those windows. Will be on the look out for more like that now...there are not many left like that in Lewes.
Hopefully this one will be framed and ready for the next exhibition at Chalk Gallery. But I want to do one more. What to do....?

Laying down colour on Symposium, Lewes

Mathematical Tiles

The first wash I play with layers of paynes grey, ultramarine and purple, with little touches of ochre here and there. overlaying with a flat brush some bricks are easy to pick out to give the impression of the shiny black mathematical tiles, which Lewes is famous for.

Glowing amber bricks

 Then when I put the first reds and oranges on the colours really contrast, the colours are so exciting together...especially when the paint is still wet and transparent like glass.

all the base colours are on

Now some heavy colours so that I get the rest of the tones right. Love those tiled steps! I would like to paint an interior with black and white tiles...I used to love those circular interiors paintings as if reflected in a mirror, usually with the tiled floor. Who painted those? ...will have to look up now ( I have a terrible memory for artist names )

wonderful green...

 Now the bit that drew me to the shop in the first place, those wonderful arched windows. The pale green sings out next to the red too.
so, that is the end of the easy bit...the definate colours are on. the rest I have to decide on...colours in windows and peoples clothes. It doesn't look much to be painted - but it will take me another couple of days to finish! watch this space...