Wednesday, June 2, 2021

New miniature - corner shop milk bar in Melbourne

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.

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.







Comparison of the original photo (left) and my miniature (right).



Cheers,

Dave



7 comments:

  1. No video of this one? Pitty, would love to see how the concrete is dealt with and the brickwork.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Petrik, sorry, no, I didn't video this one :(

      I'll see what I can do for the next. Cheers, Dave

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  2. These are absolutely incredible. Love them all. Well done 👏👏👏

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  3. Hi Dave, can these be purchased ? Do you customise pieces to order ? Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I definitely do sell commissions. You can always get in touch with me via the Contact Me section on my website.

      Delete
  4. This is 489 Barkly st West Footscray directly opposite Summerhill Rd. Was run by the Harris Family for years.

    ReplyDelete