Commisioned Project: Industrial Mural

Last summer I was commissioned to produce a large piece of artwork which epitomised Newcastle's history of industry and shipbuilding on its iconic Quayside. This was commissioned by my aunty who wanted it for her office at Hoults yard. This was a challenge as I haven't been commissioned before but also as shes family, there was the added pressure of making it perfect for her! I wanted it to reflect the industry in Newcastle, with shipbuilding and coal mining being two major industries for which the city became famous, going back to the early 1900s. The River Tyne, in particular, pioneered iron shipbuilding building sailing ships, passenger ships and other vessels to transport coal and other goods by river. My aunty has always been interested in manufacturing and the industrial revolution, being an entrepreneur herself. 

She's always been very supportive and loved my artwork so gave me free rein to produce whatever I felt fit what she wanted. At the time I didn't know much about the origins of manufacturing in the North East so did some research and made mood boards on Pinterest to get a good understanding of the aspects I wanted to include, also to keep her informed of the direction I was taking. Below are some of the pictures I took influence from, including photographs taken through the 19th Century. 

I was also inspired by L.S. Lowry, an English painter in the Mid-20th Century, renowned for paining the industrial regions of North-West England. I liked the simplicity of shape, how he breaks up the landscape into squares and triangles, with human figures depicted simply as matchstick people. Lowry is talented at creating the urban atmosphere he experienced at the time, drawing you into the place as if it were real. There's also a lot of depth, with a foreground of houses and streets, leading your eye through the landscape to the chimneys and fog in the background. It's interesting how he purposely distorted the perspective, allowing for more space to see the whole town, breaking up each layer of the image.

Final Drawing

I decided to combine elements of Lowry's cityscapes with the Tyne in the foreground, showing sailboats drifting past carrying people and goods down the river. After showing the finished line drawing to my aunty, she was happy for me to continue the colouring process. 

Through research, I loved the old sepia, monochrome photos and wanted to replicate this into the colour scheme. I used a chalk brush which allowed me to add highlights and shadows easily as they blended well together. With all the houses and chimneys, it took about a month to complete as each section was done individually, as well as making sure it was proportionally accurate. This was difficult at first as I'm not used to thinking too much about that accuracy as a lot of my illustration work is aimed at children and looser.

I aimed to split the illustration into 3 canvases, similar to the approach of a triptych, as I felt it would be more visually impactive on the office wall. The drawing was done in Photoshop on one canvas then I split and composed it in InDesign. This was a longer process than I'd expected as I coloured the layers separately. For example, the sky, boats and houses were drawn individually so I could better manage it if I needed to alter the perspective or composition. With the final artwork complete, I took it to a professional printing company where I got it printed onto three large canvases. Luckily, the image didn't pixelate as I'd considered this early in the project and made sure to use a large Photoshop canvas size. I think the monochromatic colour scheme printed very well and there was enough depth in the scene so none of the images was lost. For my first commission, I was really pleased with the outcome and my aunty loves it. I feel I learnt a lot though going out of my comfort zone to produce this mural and I'm more confident going forward in trying new things like this.