Here's my latest miniature art work: a small corner shop of the type that used to be everywhere in Australia. There were tens of thousands of these small grocery / milkbar / newsagent type shops in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, in all Australian cities and towns. I would estimate that 80-90% of them are gone now, replaced by supermarkets and convenience stores.
This particular shop was in Footscray, Melbourne, near the corner of Barkly Street and Summerhill Road. I only had a single black and white photo to work from. The photo is from the mid-1960s, and the store was demolished in the 1970s.
I set myself a challenge to see if I could make a miniature from a single photo. First I ran the photo through some online software to colorize it - here's the result. It's far from perfect, but it gave me a good solid base to work from and a way to interpret what colours I should be heading to.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBuGSsaz4ObFOuvcmyjPqdn9n2QP2PMTdm33TqZqTMCIanpYqQSZOEqSHrvAp1EKRPwSetHy_teqQ7f5Bt74_p7osldBJGf0VgVfq7IB4lHn_jdVdF22weZcugH-zn5b6Mi9K2ViM6cty2/w640-h384/Milkbar+colourised.png) |
Colorized. |
Then I had to do some research to try and locate the old logos and brands, so that I could replicate these all accurately.
Finally I had to make a representation of the interior, full of 1960s-era groceries: Persil, Cornflakes, bags of sugar and lots of point of sale for brands like Peters icecream, Marlboro cigarettes, Nestle chocolate, Coca Cola and Vita Brits.
This one was a fun one to build.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfL2fvRiO64VbPRoaBAOfRYEgr1fn3uX58qjDBhoRwBEwo64hO18gryllpBmgupTGVB_Ia3HR0tVaxY_cHUKw6s16APTcrxUXykwN06RtUL9RiaNuwEFGARt3xLYymz6upTIlMdPMyNvAa/w640-h398/COMPARISON.jpg) |
Comparison of the original photo (left) and my miniature (right). |
Cheers,
Dave