0:00:32 > 0:00:34Hello, down there!
0:00:34 > 0:00:37- What are you doing up there? - I'm looking at the studio
0:00:37 > 0:00:40from a different angle - getting a different perspective.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Come on, then, explain yourself.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46Ah, well, the reason I was up there is cos I found this.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48It's an aerial shot of my home town.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52That looks great. But don't tell me we're doing aerial art...
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Yes, but abstract ones. We'd be there all night if we did that!
0:00:55 > 0:00:57All you need are stampers, first of all.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00So it's a bit of kitchen cloth,
0:01:00 > 0:01:04and then you need to choose what each thing on your picture
0:01:04 > 0:01:07is going to represent. So this is, believe it or not, a car.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12That will be a car. Cut that out, make sure you cut inside the lines,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15so that you don't end up printing with the black lines.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19And then, once you've cut it out, stick it onto thick card
0:01:19 > 0:01:22like I've done there. That's a properly cut out one.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26Now, I think I'm going to have that section of my picture
0:01:26 > 0:01:28to do. What do you fancy?
0:01:28 > 0:01:31- I reckon I'll do this corner here. - OK. What you need to do
0:01:31 > 0:01:34is now sketch it out, all the main details.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37I've already done that, I'm ahead of the game.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39And there's your stampers I've made for you.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42- So we're simplifying this. - Yes, just do a sketch.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45And then decide what they all mean. So I've got railway track,
0:01:45 > 0:01:48I've got house, I've got different types of trees,
0:01:48 > 0:01:53roundabout, feet for footpaths or pedestrians, little traffic lights
0:01:53 > 0:01:55and that's going to be a little lake area.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57- OK?- Nice!
0:01:57 > 0:01:59I'm going to start with...
0:01:59 > 0:02:02a roundabout, cos that's the main focal point.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Wa-hey! Brilliant.
0:02:04 > 0:02:05I'm off!
0:02:05 > 0:02:08I've got tiny little white feet.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Little cars.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17OK. So basically, you're just stylising it, aren't you?
0:02:17 > 0:02:22You're not bothered about the colours matching too much.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24It's abstract!
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Houses! That's what I'm missing!
0:02:29 > 0:02:33- Houses, houses, houses.- Right. - Nearly done.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37Tell you what, I've got one I finished earlier.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41- And it's dried, look at that. - Hang on, I'm not finished!
0:02:41 > 0:02:45Well, the beautiful thing is, I've got a lovely burnt orange frame
0:02:45 > 0:02:46- to put on it.- That's lovely.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Lowry lived in the city of Salford in Greater Manchester
0:03:00 > 0:03:02until he was into his fifties.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05And it's streets like this one that inspired him to paint.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11I'm going to do a version of Coming From The Mill,
0:03:11 > 0:03:13the first of his paintings to get critical acclaim.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Well, I'm ready to go. I've got my canvas all prepared.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Lowry used to cover his canvas with flake white
0:03:22 > 0:03:25cos he wanted to destroy the feeling of the weave of the material.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28He loved the feeling of solid brush strokes.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33'Lowry would build up his thick base coats in layers,
0:03:33 > 0:03:37'giving his paintings the distinctive crusty look he wanted.'
0:03:37 > 0:03:41And he used to love doing sort of criss-cross strokes,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44like that. And you can see as I lift the brush off
0:03:44 > 0:03:47you get that texture - look at that.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50OK, now, what Lowry would have done
0:03:50 > 0:03:54now...he would have got hold of a bit of card
0:03:54 > 0:03:58and he would line up the horizontal and vertical bits,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01and over this side. And across the top.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Maybe I could start putting those in with a bit of colour.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08He chose to use just five. Five colours
0:04:08 > 0:04:11he used vermilion - lovely.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15And he used ivory black... Yellow ochre...
0:04:18 > 0:04:20and he used flake white.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22Now, I've got some in a tin here.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26You've got to be very careful with this, because it's a toxic paint -
0:04:26 > 0:04:29if you get any on your fingers and put your fingers in your mouth,
0:04:29 > 0:04:34you could be in trouble. So you have to be careful with that paint.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38And last but certainly not least, Prussian blue.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44I'm just blocking in rough areas of colour at the moment.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46A bit of that right over there.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53That's the wrong colour!
0:04:55 > 0:04:58Lowry always used to say that a street without people
0:04:58 > 0:05:00was as dead as mutton.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03He used to put people in at any stage during the painting,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06probably to give him the scale of the thing.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09So I think I should start putting some people in.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13His figures always seem to be very thin,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16and bowed down with the weight and the worries of the world
0:05:16 > 0:05:18on their shoulders.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20A couple of little legs there.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25And he would put a little flesh colour in there, maybe on his face.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I've actually got him looking a bit too well fed, I think!
0:05:29 > 0:05:34I'll thin him down with this knife - Lowry used to do that all the time.
0:05:43 > 0:05:44Oh, yes! Ha-ha!
0:06:09 > 0:06:15Actually, Lowry, in his paintings, used so many different techniques.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20Used his hands all the time, nails, a penknife...
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Let me show you one of the things he did with the chimney up here.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27To get that smoke-like effect, he would do a big splodge there.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Let's imagine smoke coming out of this one again.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Then he would just get his thumb and go, "whoosh" and take it across.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Wow! Isn't that lovely?
0:06:36 > 0:06:38And off behind there like that.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42So simple, and yet working amazingly well.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47I must say, I've enjoyed experimenting with trying to learn
0:06:47 > 0:06:51his style. I've been absolutely bowled over by it.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53I really love it.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56And it's inspired me to maybe go down to my local high street
0:06:56 > 0:07:00and do some sketching of people on a Saturday morning
0:07:00 > 0:07:03milling around, maybe trying to do a picture of today's crowds.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15If I wanted to paint this bowl of fruit, you'd probably expect me
0:07:15 > 0:07:19to start by selecting all the colours that you can see in there.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21But let's just look at it again in black and white.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24You can still tell that it's a bowl of fruit,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27so it's not just the colour that's telling us what's in the bowl.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30One of the other factors at play, which I'll demonstrate now,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34by painting a single apple... If I put it there,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37the first thing to look at is where the light is shining.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40You can see on this apple that round the front,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44all around here, is very light, and at the back, down in this area,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47is in the shade. So I have drawn that onto a piece of paper -
0:07:47 > 0:07:49a very basic, graphic shape,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52and you can see the apple I have divided into sections -
0:07:52 > 0:07:55the light area starting with this circle here,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59and then the segments, getting further and further away,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01and it's going to end in darkness.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05And to show you how simple it is, I'm not going to do my apple in green.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10I'm going to do it blue. So I'm going to start with the lightest colour.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14So let's just do the light area, which was this disc here.
0:08:15 > 0:08:21And then I'm going to do the next section just a slightly darker blue.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24When you're doing this, it's easier to add dark colour to light
0:08:24 > 0:08:29than the other way on. You can see that's just a tiny change in colour.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Let's get that going around there like that.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36And the beauty of this is that you don't have to keep
0:08:36 > 0:08:41washing your brush - just use the same brush and add to it.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44Let's get the next section - a kind of mid blue now.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46There we go.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49And the other thing to remember is I've got the stalk,
0:08:49 > 0:08:54so I'd better add some colour to the stalk in sections as well.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01Let's get that blue around there as well, around the side.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Let's just add a bit of blue... I think I'll do that that.
0:09:07 > 0:09:08Just working it out.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11I'm just going to do that one a little bit lighter.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13There we go. Now,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17next blue is starting to get quite dark now.
0:09:17 > 0:09:18And you'll notice,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23the other thing I'm doing is not particularly staying in the lines.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27It's not massively important - I'll show you why in a bit.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31But let's go round this section now.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35Lots of lovely shades of blue.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Around the edge.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Bit of the stalk. So the final segment has to be the darkest,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51a very dark blue here at the end that is in the shade.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54So royal blue...
0:09:56 > 0:09:57..for that section.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02There we go. The final bit of the stalk.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Now, as I mentioned, you don't have to stay in the lines because
0:10:05 > 0:10:09if you get another paintbrush that's just slightly wet, what you can do
0:10:09 > 0:10:13is just go around those sections
0:10:13 > 0:10:19and blend in the colour like that - just gently blend it all together.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25So you can see that even though I haven't painted the apple in green,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29because I've established where the light is,
0:10:29 > 0:10:30and put it onto my painting,
0:10:30 > 0:10:36it still looks like a 3D apple.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38That's worked really well.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42And once you've mastered an individual piece of fruit,
0:10:42 > 0:10:48why not go the whole hog, and try the entire bowl?!
0:11:00 > 0:11:02Come on, move it!
0:11:02 > 0:11:05And that's exactly what I'm going to do - show you guys
0:11:05 > 0:11:08how to capture movement in your art work.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14First of all, I've got to just do some very rough sketches
0:11:14 > 0:11:19of...the bodies that are twisting and turning
0:11:19 > 0:11:21on these...monkey bars.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27OK, so...just some very rough sketches.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35Just so that I know where I'm going before I start adding any paint.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42Right. Now, for a hands-on approach, I'm not using any brushes,
0:11:42 > 0:11:44I'm just going to use my digits.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Starting with a flesh colour,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51directly from the tube, straight onto the board.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57And then just blend it in with your fingers like that.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59A bit for the head, a little bit for the hands.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Now, for the camouflage colours, all those lovely greens...
0:12:05 > 0:12:08..and browns.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10So I start with a bit of green there.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12A little bit of brown.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19And now I just mix them all in.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24What I'm trying to do here as well is create a raised
0:12:24 > 0:12:28texture to the paint, so I'm not actually rubbing it in flat.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32So you get this nice sort of raised effect.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39And now to create the feeling of movement, I'm going to smudge
0:12:39 > 0:12:43the paint away with my fingers, like that.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51Right the way down to the legs. And a bit on the boots as well.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53Cool! Right,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56now for soldier number two, we do the same again.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09And again, drag the paint away from the direction
0:13:09 > 0:13:12that your chap is travelling in, like that.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15So you get that really nice blurred effect.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19And finally, our third little chappie here.
0:13:23 > 0:13:24Just to finish it off,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27I'll just put on those monkey bars.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35And that is squeezed directly out of the tube like that. Excellent.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:13:56 > 0:13:59E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk