Somerset House... and a box

This rather odd painting is inspired by an event I went to in London last year. There was a little pop-up event associated with the game Genshin Impact and when I was there I took a photo of the event booth with the historic architecture behind it and thought it would make an interesting scene.

It's quite hard to explain what exactly this painting ‘is’ without seeing the inspiration, so I have inserted a couple of images below which hopefully will make it a little clearer.

This is the photo I took of the event booth.

And this is a sheet of stickers – inspired by some elements from the game – which was given out at the event. I chose my favourite of the box designs from this sheet and used it to ‘replace’ the more modern looking booth from the photograph.

It took me a long time to finish this painting, as I had several parts where I wasn’t sure how best to get the effect I wanted. However I am pleased with the final result and how it creates the juxtaposition of recognisable architecture against the strange fantastical box.