From Sketch to Postcard
Bringing my town to life on paper.
2025 is going to be different.
I finished some big milestones by the end of last year, and am now more ready than ever to take my art career up a notch. This is the year when I will give a genuine attempt making a living from my artworks, and easy, it is not.
I have been through dozens of potential ideas for revenue, and while I could pick up a full-time job at a studio, I really want to make this magic lantern stuff work, so I need substantial time for it. We’ll call full time employment plan B for now.
So after racking my brain over this for months, an idea suddenly became very obvious to me. I have been spending a lot of time urban sketching lately, so
“I should paint local landscapes.” he thought.
I’ve seen what is available at the shops around town and I think I could make something interesting, perhaps I could paint half a dozen different vistas and that would be a nice little series of postcards or reproductions I could sell.
If only it were that simple.
An idea
I was visiting a shop in the town centre when I found a place that sells artworks and products from local craftsmen called South Coast Makers Market, and looking through what they have on offer, I kept having the same thought, “Nothing here looks quite like the stuff I make”.
And looking further around town there are others who paint the same subject matter, but not in the same way as me, and so that idea has been growing over time, tantalizing me.
I think I am mostly just nervous. I have previously written about how I tried making products before, like colouring books and hoodies, and the dusty boxes in my loft are a constant sad reminder of my failed attempts. So here I am again, thinking of putting my time and money where my mouth is.
But there is still the matter of how I can reconcile this idea of painting local landscapes with the larger Magic Lantern project at hand, so my “brilliant” solution is to have Mago and Ash visiting these locations.
Yes, it loses some mass appeal, if someone is interested in the locations they may see the character as unnecessary. But for me, it gives me the opportunity to introduce my characters to a new audience, and I like to think that it is the kind of thing that a grandparent would pick up as a gift, or a kid would grab as a souvenir. I need to find my audience.
Postcard #1
So, where to start?
I have a whole process to figure out, but first I need a painting, so we are going out hunting. Currently, the temperatures are freezing, so I narrowed it down to somewhere more urban where I can have a hot coffee while I sketch.
The Westbourne Arcade seemed like a very good fit to me, built in the 19th century, I always loved its very iconic architecture, so with my scarf and gloves on I made my way down to Westbourne.
I found an interesting angle, with all the houses disappearing as the street curves to the left, and I got stuck in with my sketching, the next step was to bring it back home and take some pictures. Before re-inking it onto watercolour paper, I like making some adjustments to keep the perspective and scale consistent, sometimes it is difficult to capture that at first try. At this point, I will also sketch in any characters I want to add to the painting.
Now here at the next step things took a turn for the worst. The first painting turned out horrible. The paint was puddling and blotchy, with a very strange texture. The likely culprit was the paper, either the type I was using or just that one sheet. And so I had to wait for a few more days for a new one to arrive, while praying that it didn’t happen all over again.
I went with a Saunders Waterford 90LB Hot Pressed paper for the second one, and it worked like a dream, I just had to redo the inks all over again.
This is the unforgivable nature of traditional media, no undo buttons or saving the progress, I do think it’s part of what makes it truly beautiful though. In the end I got the whole thing painted in just a couple of days.
I cannot quite explain just how much I have learned just from this one painting, I have used a lot of India ink before, but watercolour was vastly underused in my work. Not anymore.
And are we done now that the painting is finished? As if.
As I was taking the dust off of my old photography equipment, I was also lamenting to my wife about how most of the time and effort I put into this project has nothing to do with painting, and that one day I will be able to “afford hiring someone to just get the rest of the hassle done for me”. Alas, not today though. For now, we just have to put our photographer hat on and grab a potato bag from the kitchen cupboard to use as a counterweight.
We’re all about professionalism here.
Currently, the goal is to have this printed as both a full size reproduction limited series and as postcards. So I needed to have as high fidelity as possible. I also managed to get my brother to help me with the colour correction, from his own free will and totally not under coercion.
And now, here it is, with colour and detail as accurate as the one I hold in my hand, a beautiful photo of the first painting in this series.
But as my earlier lamenting suggested, my work is not quite done. I still need to go through the process of printing QA, and finding interested local vendors for me to sell my “fish” to.
Have you got any experience with printing and selling your own work? I’d love any tips or advice you have to offer.
Or even just suggestions of what else I can use this artwork for?
But for now, back to work I go, see you again soon.
To you, from the home of magic.
Marco D Blanco.
Very cool! I'm impressed with your skill.
I love the idea of your characters visiting the places you paint. Looking forward to seeing what else you come up with.