The Process of Building a Cityscape
A cityscape in an early step where the writing is still visible
Introduction
I will take you through the process of making a mixed media cityscape. I have developed a very layered approach of building and deconstructing the city using photography, writing, drawing, collaging and painting.
Step 1: TAKING ROOFTOP PHOTOGRAPHS
My cityscapes start with exploring rooftop locations and taking my camera along to take photographs of the views. Architectural detail is a very important focal point of interest for me, since I’m a big architecture fan.I love contemplating the sprawling array of buildings that can be found in cities, and the intricate patterns that urbanism conveys from above.The rooftops particularly interest me because they convey hidden histories of a human dwelling. Often old installation elements such as antennas, water deposits, chimneys and exhaust fume pipes just get left behind, like forgotten strata on the buildings. In certain cities like Barcelona you can find all kinds of things on rooftops, even in gentrified neighborhoods with high real estate value. I have found clothes laundry basins and hanging lines, squatter terraces and homes made in pigeon nests, illegal apartment extensions, children’s playgrounds, vegetable gardens, graffiti murals, luscious gardens, communal party chill outs, and junk yards on rooftops. My first ten years of painting these cityscapes, I actually painted many of the layers of these landscape paintings in my rooftop terrace in the Eixample of Barcelona where I lived.
STEP 2: WRITING THE POEM/TEXT
When I first started making rooftop views, I drew and watercolored the view I was seeing live, then I would write a short poem or phrase, the image and the text were simultaneous moment.
I do not consider myself to be a good poet, but the connected words and metaphors are really the “seed” of these cityscapes. They are normally texts charged with personal experiences, reflecting on emotions, and then they get hidden underneath the layers of photographs, collage, paint. In some older photography work such as the piece “Maze” the poem I wrote was very visible. In the cityscapes however, it disappears. In a way, my intimate texts get lost in the city, which is very much my metaphor for contemporary society. In the past few years, I continue writing/sketching in my journal every morning, then I copy the text with a pencil on the sky area of the new piece I am working on.
Step 3: COLLAGING
II select, edit and print my photographs of the cityscape. Then I start cutting up my photographs and gluing them in a non-orderly way on the board. I cut up geometrical shapes of the photographs in much the same way as you would make puzzle pieces out of a complete image. This is the baseline puzzle, and I do not place the pieces or photos in the location where the city is actually laid out. This is my game of “reconstructing” the view of the city in a playful way which does not follow reality, as if the fragments could assemble a new urban reality.
After the initial photograph puzzle, I add layers of found paper, silk paper which I have previously painted with acrylics and inks to achieve the right hues and textures.
I also transfer printed found materials, fragments of magazines, and textbooks using Mod Podge transfer medium and glue.
I often glue and then rip up (décollage) sections of the piece, since sanding away and subtracting is also a collage technique in my process.
Step 4: DRAWING
At this point in the layering, I sketch and scribble areas using watercolor pencils and graphite pencils, adding more invented details to the collage, and also introducing colors which often “bleed” when painted over with acrylics or varnish.
The next phase is a layer of aerosol UV protectant varnish over the whole piece, to ensure color steadfastness and protection of the collage papers. After protecting the collage, I draw some more made-up details with thick illustration markers. After this marker layer, I protect with a coat of uv-resistant liquid acrylic varnish, which I scratch with an engraving point before it dries completely to add more texture.
Step 5: PAINTING
The last phase of the citiscapes is also a very intuitive use of paints (acrylics and oil paints) to integrate the different layers together and add color washes and veils.
Once the collage’s previous protective varnish layer is completely dry, I start painting the next layer with dark acrylic paints to add some texture and contrast to the piece. Sometimes I use acrylic spray paints for this purpose, introducing some geometrically shaped stencils which i have made.
When the acrylic layers are dry, I build the last layer with light colored oil paints, which serve as a final “veil” which partially covers the underneath images. When the oil paint is dry, I protect the whole piece with spray UV-resistant final varnish.