These Rivers Of Headlights, These Rivers Of Rain

I’ve been meaning to do a painting like this for a while, as there are a number of lines in Telegraph Road screaming out for something like this. So when I saw this video by Niaz Hannan, I had to have a go at something similar. I’ve used all five tundra colours, plus cadmium red, cadmium yellow and white gouache.

You’re probably best off watching the video if you want to see how I painted this one. The video is impressive. What I especially liked were:

• the initial pencil drawing, with ll the cars reduced down to a row of squares with the top sides all lying on the same straight line, just above the horizon.
• the random cross cross strokes he makes cross the foreground at the end just for the hell of it

Where I diverged from Niaz was:

• by using tundra colours rather than a grey mess in a palette: I wanted to see some granulation
• by adding white in the middle of the red spots for back lights and their reflections
• by adding bright yellow number plates and reflections
• by adding fork shadows underneath the cars, within the original squares
• by including a little colour in the back windows of the cars
• by including white spatters at the end as well as dark ones

I’m not sure whether the end result is any good but am putting it up for sale, with the price to be found here. It’s not as well refined as Niaz’s, coming across s a little doodly. The biggest problem is the car reflections. They’re too dark values and are wider than the cars in places. On the other hand, the tundra colours worked brilliantly, with lots of granulation everywhere. Maybe I need to have another go at one of these paintings and to try to be slightly less loose and more controlled.