Henson Pig Trail 2017 Gloucester blog 05

Henson Pig Trail 2017 Gloucester blog 05

All of the painted artwork has now been finished and the next step, as the picture show was to give each pig a coat of varnish. The varnish helps to bring all the colours and painted elements together. 
The pictures show the pigs prior to wrapping and dispatch to Gloucester, in west England. Here they will be placed in to a trail in the City called 'Old Spots Sculpture Trail, and is based on an old Spots pig named Henson. The trail runs from June to August 2017 after which the pigs are auctioned off for charitable causes. Further information can be found here.

'Pigs may fly', 'Floating Floyd and 'Piggy Bank' pig sculptures destined for Gloucester 

'Piggy Bank' pig with gold and silver coins, ready for the Henson trail 2017

Front view of all three pigs for the Henson 2017 trail in Gloucester

Rears of each pig for the Henson 2017 'Old Spots Sculpture Trail'

'Pigs may fly' leading after being varnished

Henson Pig Trail 2017 Gloucester blog 03

Henson Pig Trail 2017 Gloucester blog 03

The project is to create three painted pig 'sculptures' as part of a street art/ trail project for the City of Gloucester, UK. The trail will be open to the public during the summer months of 2017 and then auctioned off for the benefit of several charities. Further details can be found here.

'Piggy bank' with painting almost completed

Work has continued to finishing off the 'Piggy Bank' pig and tidying up details. The pink coat of paint, a premixed 'Reeves' paint colour has worked well straight out of the pot. Originally I had thought about mixing it using other paints but in this case it worked well, as did the 'metal' paints used on the coins, again from Reeves. The black lining is a Daler Rowney system 3 heavy pigment paint. Now I was able to return my attention to the 'Floating Floyd' pig, based on the 'Animals' cover by the band Pink Floyd. This uses more colours than the other pig and some are premixed paint, and some mixed paint by myself. The pigs/ designs give the impression that is is just an application of one simple colour. However it is quite common to have to paint several layers (brush painting) to get a dense enough colour but unfortunately sometimes the colours are not flat, even after several coats, in particular when using ones own mixed paint. So I have found myself having to slightly change colours, using purchased mixed paint to an approximate shade, to get over this problem but I don't think that it would detract to much from the intended design.

Large cartoon pig design closeup

Battersea power station on rear

'Floating Floyd' under progress with the finished 'Piggy bank' to rear

Henson Pig Trail 2017 Gloucester blog 01

Henson Pig Trail 2017 Gloucester blog 01 

I am to start very shortly on painting 3 pig sculptures. These will eventually join a number of others, also painted by artists, on a trail in the town Gloucester and surrounding area. The trail is called 'Old Spots Sculpture Trail, and is based on an old Spots pig named Henson. The trail runs from June to August 2017 after which the pigs are auctioned off for charitable causes. Further information can be found here.

I have 3 designs intended for the trail. The following images show the designs, drawn in Photoshop, of them from different angles. The designs were create and submitted during late Autumn 2016. 

The first one is known as Piggy Bank.

The second one is known as 'Floating Floyd'

The final one is known as 'Pigs May Fly'

The pigs are hollow and stand 1m tall approx, and will be painted by hand using acrylics.