The Grand Appeal: Gromit Unleashed 3 - Painting a Sculpture
The cat’s out the bag!! I painted a GIANT Gromit sculpture for the Gromit Unleashed 3 Sculpture Trail! Back in March I was contacted by the team at The Grand Appeal and invited to design and paint a giant sitting Gromit!!! A massive pinch me moment and I was so excited!
I was given a brief - A quintessentially British afternoon tea and a preliminary name of “Scone with the wind”. So I came up with my first sketch, incorporating a gingham tablecloth and all of the classic afternoon tea items, cakes, tea, scones and jam.
Initial sketch - most of the detail was on the rear of the sculpture here and the feedback was that the sculptures are mostly photographed from the front so it needed some adjusting.
A revised sketch - After adjusting my design so that it had a lot more detail on the front of the sculpture, this was the design that I submitted. I’d digitally added the scones in to give them an idea of how I would place them. The ears and tail at this point were the thing that I really wasn’t happy with. I had no clue how I would paint the Union Jack on a 3D ear. So in my next and almost final design i’d suggested maybe having some bunting wrapping around them instead.
This was the VERY rough mock up that I sent over, and my design was approved! At this point I still had no idea how hard it was going to be to translate this design onto a 3D Gromit sculpture or how big he was actually going to be!
In May, my sculpture arrived in the secret painting space in Bristol and I headed over, paints and brushes in hand, to see my Gromit for the very first time! He was one of 4 sitting Gromit’s and was SO much bigger than I’d anticipated!
Now was to start the actual painting! It was quite daunting if I’m completely honest! I’d never done anything 3D before so I did feel a little out of my comfort zone. Being surrounded by so many incredibly talented artists did make me have a small panic and think to myself “DO NOT mess this up”. Luckily as soon as I started to get some paint on him I felt so much calmer!
I made the decision to paint the entire thing in acrylic, which in hindsight, was probably not the smartest or most cost effective thing to do haha! But it’s what I knew and I went with it, it worked so well in terms of mixing colours and they were easy to get hold of if I ran out - being in the centre of Bristol. So it worked for me but next time I think I’ll get emulsion in big tins to make my life easier!
The first step for me was to paint the block colour of the ears and head and then to sketch out the body before painting the body and the gingham tablecloth (incoming breakdown). Who knew painting straight lines and GINGHAM on a rounded body would be so hard…not me.
From here on it was just adding in allllll of the details - and I had a LOT. So many cakes, patterns, fruit, cups and teapots!
The halfway point - we were getting somewhere at this point and I think I was around halfway here. The tablecloth was done - thank goodness and it was just adding in all of the details that were left.
I was surrounded by so many incredibly talented artist while I painted and it was so inspiring to watch them work and bring their designs to life. It was also so lovely to have people on hand who had done this before when I had a wobble or needed help or to answer my questions. Everyone was so supportive and wanted to help you at any given moment.
I think the whole process took me around 8-10 days so around 80 hours of painting! As I added more and more details, my Gromit really started to come to life. Each thing I added made it look more and more fun and to be honest I could have kept going!
The bunting that I painted on the ears was probably the most fiddly part (after the tablecloth) and I used tape to mask off the shape so that it was easier and quicker to paint the Union Jack into a triangle shape.
Once all of the details were done, I left him there and a few weeks later he would be lacquered to make him all shiny and protect the design from weather and dirt. It felt really weird finishing something that I’d put SO much time and effort into and not knowing how long before I’d get to see it again or share it online.
Not long after and email landed in my inbox inviting me to a launch event at Aardman Studios in Bristol for the reveal of all of the sculptures! So on the 24th June we headed on over and this was the first time I’d seen my sculpture ‘Scone with the wind’ all shiny and finished!
HOW CUTE IS HE!!!??
The Big Reveal! - Taken at the Launch Event at Aardman Studios - Bristol
The trail is launching on the 30th June all over Bristol. My sculpture will be located on North Street outside Storysmith book shop. You can find all of the locations here.
All of the sculptures will be auctioned off to raise money for Bristol Children's Hospital - this will be held in October 2025.
Lastly, i’d like to say a massive thank you to the team over at The Grand Appeal, you have been truly amazing throughout this whole process and I feel honoured to have been chosen to paint a Gromit sculpture for you this year. A big thank you also to the sponsor of my sculpture, Jeremy Gumbley.
If you head on over to Bristol to see the sculptures make sure to get a photo with mine!