The Archive of Archive - A Tale Of Two Cities & The Road To Nowhere

One of my more unusual traits as an artist is my tendency to go back to previous pictures and work on them some more. I used to do this quite a lot, as many of my original drawings were done in pencil but as they grew older and began to fade I went over them in pen to preserve them. Sometimes I would later come back and add extra details, or shading, or even just fixing some line widths. I keep very few pictures sacred. I fell out of this habit for a while, as I was generally happy enough with my pictures that I never felt the need to tinker with them more.

Recently I began doing this again but in a different manner. Rather than simply enhancing the original to create a better version of the same picture, I've been using digital techniques to add completely new purpose to existing art. Before the EPY began I did the biggest case of this so far. I drew a picture of a robot highlander at the start of last year, and whilst I really liked it, it didn't have a lot of potential as a picture to sell because it was kinda scary, and I ran out of paper before I got to its feet.

I had wanted to do a hillwalking robot for a long time, and with Langwathby Art Mart incoming, I decided that I would do a full retool of the highlander picture. Using my lightbox, I drew a new head, legs, walking stick, and backpack for the robot. I also removed the shoulder cranes and the original parts. Finally I added a detailed background to complete the effect. It now stands as one of my best pictures to date. I'm very happy with it.

This is a technique which really captures the way I work. I enjoy digging up elements from my past to use as inspiration, especially in my art. I like that it shows that I've been having good ideas for a long time, but just not the talent to put them to use effectively.

The next picture I used this for was another attempt to freshen up my portfolio for prints. I have a solid collection of A4 and A3 pictures, as well as a gigantic A1 print, but in the A2 size I feel a little underrepresented. The only one I have is beginning to show its age, and looks a little out of place on its own. The Road To Nowhere filled that category, but I wanted another to properly have representation at that size, especially now I'm thinking of phasing out my A4 collection. So I took one of those A4 pictures and built a new picture around it.

That picture was Christina, one of the citybot pictures. She was always an awkward bot in the family, simply due to being drawn far smaller than the others. I examined her pose and worked out that she would work well as pleasantly surprised. Rather than retooling parts of her, I added a second 'bot presenting her with flowers, along with a detailed background. I tried to showcase the scale of the 'bots here, as that was one of the faults of the original Christina picture.

A am happy with the finished picture but I feel that it only works at a large size. The background to picture ratio is a bit too far off but generally I'm fine with it. It still makes an excellent addition to the A2 print collection.