Anatomy of a Street Painting Part 2

Alrighty! Part 2. Sorry this didn't happen over the weekend. My weekend was pretty exhausting, and as much as I had good intentions for posting this update on the first day of my painting, it didn't happen.

I started work Saturday morning around 10:00. My roommate usually helps me set up the grid. I'm not actually entirely sure how street painters do it without help ;). I suppose I'm not quite that good yet. But anyway. Paintings start with a square the size of your image. I do mine in duct tape, and then mark every foot with a permanent marker so it actually stays throughout the painting in case I need to put any of it back in later

The grid is made using a simple chalk line from the hardware store. Once that's in, then I can roughly outline the drawing like you can see in the photo below...


From that point in, it's just adding the colour and chatting with the people. I'd definitely say that all the talking is what takes up most of my time!!


Anyway, by the end of the day I had mostly David filled in and a bit of the sky on the oval landscape portion.

The end of the day is usually the point I have least control over. If it rains, you can cover your paintings with tarp and that will probably do a decent job at preventing them from getting trashed. And while you're sitting there working, you can usually make most people aware enough of your presence to not walk through your work. But when you're not there - the preservation of the painting is really up to fate!

I've come back many times to find footprints through the painting, or tire tracks from somebody's bicycle. You can't controll what people will do! Just cross your fingers and hope you don't have too much of a mess to deal with in the morning.

This year I was situated amongst some public art (these metal, colourful trees flourish in downtown London!) so between those and my little pylons, I was able to mark the area off with caution tape before I took off for the night.