Sharing my experience at painting at UPFEST Street Art Festival 2024 (+ work for sale!)
This year, I took part at UPFEST - Europe's largest Street Art & Graffiti festival. Here's a summary of how I prepared and did the thing, plus a little reflection.
Intro:
What is UPFEST?
UPFEST is Europe's largest Street Art & Graffiti festival. It happens pretty much every year and revolves around an exciting schedule which includes large scale murals from artists all over the world, and other events such such as live painting, talks and workshops. I’m so lucky to live in south Bristol, as over the past few weeks we have seen the streets LITTERED with incredible new murals across different houses, shops and random walls. Makes my walk to work super great.
This year, I took part in one of UPFEST’s live painting event with the fantastical Bristol Mural Collective at the Tobacco Factory.
This article gives a summary of my process and final thoughts, and info on how to buy the final piece for those that may be interested.
How I prepared:
I created the artwork digitally first.
I used an app called Procreate on my Ipad to create the original design. To be honest, I mocked this idea up fairly quickly, but ended up sticking with it because it was really fun and felt easy enough to complete in a day’s work (Reducing time pressure stress for future meee).
(If you have an Ipad and into this kind of thing, I really recommend this software! It’s a one off payment of £12.99 and has revolutttionised my work. It’s very intuitive and so worth the upfront cost.)
Gathered the materials.
I then packed all my materials ready the night before, because this is a sensible and organised thing to do. 15 minutes before I was due to set off.
The image below is a summary of what I brought with me! I’ll do a separate post that dives more into the what and why for the materials I use for murals at a later date.
Then I did the thing!
This year, I wanted to experiment with the background and make it a bit more interesting as usually I keep things pretty simple and plain. As you can see in the pics below, I took a more layered approach and built up the background with layers of spraypaint and acrylic paint. I then finished all the line work with paint pens to get those extra fine details.
Because the board was relatively small (1.2m x 1.2m), I didn’t use any referencing techniques and just used a best guess on where everything should be positioned. I basically did a bit of ‘okay so this eye needs to be in line with about half way up the square side… and then the right side of this guy’s neck needs to line up with the right side of this eye that i’ve already placed down…” and so on and so forth.
I was pretty happy with the outcome and to be honest the design lent itself to there being a bit of give and take with the final line positioning so it didn’t matter if I was a wee bit off.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_474,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F241c973d-7c80-4fac-9a51-43a208abfdda_3024x4032.jpeg)
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..and OH yeah, here’s a little video of how I got some of my sexy corners on the green box - enjoy!:
Reflection
I really enjoyed the day and painting with my pals at the Bristol Mural Collective! I’m so lucky to be a part of this amazing women-led community, founded by the amazingly talented and wonderful RTIIIKA (Aka Rosa) a few years back.
The UPFEST atmosphere was great, lots of amazing art was created, lots of friendly people, and nice beer and sun yum. The volunteers at UPFEST were also super helpful and the made the day really easy. All in all, 10/10 event.
The original design was pretty much stuck to as-well, however on the day I simplified the eyes and added some extra details such as a hat and some text to help visually bring it all together as this was lacking.
Additionally - I received quite a few ‘and what inspired this?’ type of questions. With a few suggestions from passer-bys asking whether the characters were based on Ed, Edd and Eddy or Sid the sloth from Ice Age. (Which I LOVED SO MUCH hearing. One of the great things about live painting - getting to hear feedback like this live. But regrettably I had to admit they were not consciously inspired by these).
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc578caca-a307-4246-98ca-9e2c7f6dd958_800x800.jpeg)
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To get a lil serious, 99% of the time I don’t draw or paint to express a conscious feeling or statement. I do it to relax and use different parts of my brain compared to my day to day job, enjoying the physical process of making shapes and faces and lines. Although, it’s worth noting that of course like everyone, there will be both conscious and subconscious influences to what shapes and faces and lines I may create.
Nevertheless, I do still get jealous when I see others eloquently explain “ I made this because X”. Because in all honesty - my brain in response to this question normally looks like Homer Simpson meme below:
One last thing - It’s for sale!
If you’re interested in owning these little men from my 2024 UPFEST piece or learning more, send me an email or message on Linked/Instagram.
Note the following:
50% of the sale price goes towards UPFEST and 50% goes towards the artist (me).
UPFEST will handle the sale payment, and require a minimum offer of £100 to cover the cost of the board itself, time taken for them to locate the board at their warehouse and make it available for pick up / delivery.
The board is 1.2 meters and 1.2 meters in diameter and is made from repurposed wooden boards.
I’ve also got the original design that can be printed smaller and on paper if interested, just give me a shout!
See ya
Thanks for having a little read, sending lots of lots to wherever you are and hope you have a brilliant day. :)
Some final behind the scenes pics below »»»»
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Over and oot!