This week some time was spent pushing paint over an old recycled print by an unknown artist.. This doctored piece "Playing With Fire" now has someone who looks a bit like me creating a metal wildstyle HOAKS sculpture in his workshop, with a Maskedman poster hanging in the background After thinking about what to do with the original image for a while, one day I noticed that the shape of the letter A was kind of already in the original print so that's where the paint started. Trying to match the colors and tones of the original old print was the biggest challenge aswell as keeping the paint wet enough to blend the colors but not too wet that it warps the paper..Something that was learnt the hard way on a previous project..
Pictured above is the image before it was doctored / vandalized, for better or for worse.. It's behind glass in this picture so the colors may be a little different to the progress shots below..After having it sitting around for a while and thinking about different ideas and ways to tackle it, the other day it just started to happen..
The first line in the A that already existed and the first few panels go down..All the paint was applied with no sketch marks or plan, and the colors were mostly mixed on the surface of the print while they were wet enough to work with..
Starting to take shape as all the letters get worked out and worked on in a weird order..The H is still wet and in it's first layer of paint at this point. Once it's dry, wetting it can pull the paint back off, so it's mostly dry mixing paint on the surface in thin layers to continue adding more rust, highlights shadows and details to the metal work after this point..
Like a few other of my doctored paintings and PreGraffalites there's sometimes a self portrait involved using an existing character from the piece.. This one was pretty easy but if we're being honest he's a little short..
So far every google search of what name the artists signature might say has come up with nothing..The original print was or is number 76/750 and signed..It's now number one of one.of 750..
I'd like to find out more about this print, the artist and the man in the picture, so if you've got any information or have seen this print before please let me know...
The Maskedman also made his way into the painting in the form of a print hanging in the background, along with some other small details and tags. The mount was also the original but looked the wrong kind of old, so it was painted and customized with washes of acrylics and spray paint, into a rusty burnt one of a kind frame.
After several hours of carefully placed paint, it's now finished and for sale from the canvas and prints section of my Bigcartel store..
POST UPDATE!!
After writing this blog post I was contacted by someone who owns a couple of my doctored paintings with information about the original piece.. The artists name is Phil Hobbs and he is primarily a water color artist from Yorkshire.. The title of the piece I worked on is called The Blacksmith and was painted at Benson's forge.... It's really cool to know a little about the piece and where it came from..Big thanks to DJSpydee for the info and support.. You can check out more of Phil Hobbs work on his website here.. http://www.plhobbs.co.uk/
