It's a Brum Ting

This image crept up on me and turned out very differently than I planned. I used to do this type of image when I was younger - typically an imaginary landscape drawing together portraits, decorative elements, and abstract components but normally in pen and ink without any colour.

I attended the Opening Ceremony, Athletics, Boxing and Rugby 7's at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and loved the colour and the impact it had on the City. We had to go in to Birmingham and see the Bull and King Kong too. The Bull was the star of the show and attracted visitors to Centenary Square to see it up close. The King Kong figure made a short appearance in Manzoni Gardens near New Street station in the 1970s and a generation of Birmingham children remember it from then. More recently it featured in the Stewart Lee documentary King Rocker. When a version was brought to a fan park in Great Hampton Street we had to visit.

I had the idea of a Japanese style comic book face-off between the orange-eyed ape and angry red-eyed bull as a centrepiece for the composition.

The first stage was to draw the bull from the reference images I'd taken at Centenary Square and add a cropped geometric symbol of the games. A consistent backdrop of the Games was the soundtrack of Birmingham music and the really catchy "It's a Brum Ting" by Friendly Fire Band. Brum Ting summed up the way the Games was put together - unique to the area.

I realised that a largely grey bull and a dark grey King Kong were going to be a challenge but the comic book style meant I could soften them with colour and also use the other elements to overlap and wrap round to make the image work. What is on paper at this stage and the King Kong figure added slightly later was all I had - no view on colour scheme. I hoped that would become clear once I started painting.

I started to have concerns. The athletics events at Alexander Stadium were blessed with wonderful sunsets and the fireworks were filled with coloured smoke that worked in the daytime as well as darkness so I wanted a sunset sky. You can see in this image something that subsequently failed. I had the idea of streaks of yellow and orange but with radial streams of light too. I was hoping that the translucent ink would create an interesting effect. This failed badly. The violet ink in the bottom corner was much stronger than I expected and I could see I would have to think of something to balance it out later. I could see a big gap under the bull's chin and had the idea of putting a medal in there. I loved that the Commonwealth Games medals were designed and made in the amazing Jewellery Quarter and that the athletes loved them because they looked 'jewel-like'. I thought it would be a great image to fill the space.

Adding the orange gave me some other things to think about. One of the things I like about ink is that it settles into a much more consistent block of colour. Its translucence is a positive too because you can create interesting effects with whatever shines through it. It is water resistant though and so watercolour on top of ink doesn't work well. At this stage I could see that the orange and yellow was not going to get weaker (it would get stronger with more coats) and the lettering could easily disappear into the sky. Watercolour too is a more delicate and subtle medium and the ape was potentially going to be washed out (and by definition the bull too) if I wasn't careful. I was starting to think about the 2022 numbers and what could fill them so that the numbers were readable but that they contributed to the theme. I wanted to maintain an element of 'inside joke' to the painting. I like that letters disappear off the page and need to be filled in by the viewer. I also like that some of the images may not be immediately obvious.

I had a bit of a lucky break. I wanted to make sure the lettering could stand out a bit more so I mixed opaque white gouache with some watercolour pigment and filled in the Brum Ting with tiny white 'kisses'. The gouache sat on top of the ink so I then used a similar method but with dots to draw out the Commonwealth Games symbol - I liked that this also gave a slight nod to indigenous Australian art. I then added the subsequent layers of ink only to the non-lettered areas to give a greater contrast. I like the addition of the blue ink to the shoulders of the ape which gave a hint of the materials and texture while making the colour more interesting. I tried to add some of this to the bull too using rusty and yellowy tones too. I was still seeing problem areas - the purple is still too strong and the area round the medal needs to be darker in tone for balance in my opinion.

I found solutions to the bottom left of the painting. The 2022 is filled with 'balls' from the various sports using reference images of the designs actually used. The only exception is the lawn bowl which I subsequently realised were either blue or red. The commonwealth baton was difficult to portray and I'm not sure it works. We actually began our Commonwealth Games experience a few weeks ago watching the baton early on a Saturday morning passing through New Street in Kenilworth carried by some local worthies so I'm pleased I've used it. Using the word 'baton' is a lazy way of helping to identify it but also softens the block of green. The skin of the Selfridges building is an iconic image which is often used as an abstract but identifiable image of the city centre. Perry the mascot bull appeared throughout and seemed a good way to finish this area. you can see I broke the purple down by listing the sports in gold ink. I also wanted to break the top line of the purple so it wasn't just a big rectangle. I decided to use more purple ink to create the symbolic Rotunda and the the Joseph Chamberlain tower which was so prominent at the hockey venue. The area round the medal is darkened by symbolic water and an athletics track.

The final touches were to just darken the tones on bull a little to give it some 'weight', add some gold ink to the ring in it's nose and add some brown ink to the chains under it's neck. I like the final image and I feel there is a lot of me in it - based on my own personal experiences of the Games and a city I have a lot of affection for.