>> ADAM DANT: I am sketching today at the Lynch heavy plant warehouse in Stanmore, where
Boris Johnson is due to give a speech.
It is not necessarily about getting close up to the candidates; it is more capturing
the general ambience of the scene, because it is quite an interesting location with all
these huge diggers.
>> BORIS JOHNSON: What has happened in London in the last five years or so has been truly
remarkable.
Five years ago, everybody was saying the whole thing was over for our city, the wealth and
power and influence would migrate to Shanghai, Dubai and Mumbai, and bye-bye London.
That was the story.
Today, it is completely reversed.
As I say, this is incontestably the financial, cultural, artistic and commercial capital…
>> ADAM DANT: I might have to put a bit more laughter into the audience, because he was
deploying his classic humour, wasn’t he?
I am not necessarily just concentrating on what he is saying; it is how he is saying
it, where he is and how the audience are reacting.
I am hoping later to go on a bit of a walkabout with my sketchbook with Mr Johnson, and get
some drawings of him interacting with the public, which I think is something he specialises
in.
The stuff we want to do is as much about the public reaction to the politicians as it is
about their message, their presence, their personality and their general operation.
It is about how it is received.
My basic modus operandi is to find a decent spot to scope the whole scene and, from there,
expand the operation and work out if I can wander around a location.
You have to manoeuvre fairly swiftly, especially with these walkabouts.
On this campaign trail, you get a lot of the public asking for selfies and they want to
capture a moment.
I am capturing a moment as well.
>> PROTESTOR: Party for Britain!
Party for small businesses!
Party for Britain!
UKIP!
No!
Traitors!
Traitors to the country!
Tories and Labour are all the same!
You vote for the same!
Vote for a real party!
>> ADAM DANT: There have been a few lively interjections from individuals whose opinions
conflict.
You get one or two things like that but they are not disruptive.
>> BORIS JOHNSON: You are so quick.
>> ADAM DANT: Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me along.
>> BORIS JOHNSON: Nice to see you.
Good luck.
I am very impressed.
>> ADAM DANT: All the best.
Thank you.
>> CONSERVATIVE LADY: Lovely to meet you as well.
It was a pleasure to meet you.
I learnt a lot.
>> ADAM DANT: This morning, I have come to Ridley Road Market, Dalston Kingsland, where
Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader, is doing a walkabout and some interviews amongst
all the fruit and veg and the noisy butchers.
There are a hundred or so, or maybe 80 to a hundred stalls here, selling all sorts of
fruit and veg, and it makes a good backdrop.
[Cross-talk]
>> NATALIE BENNETT: Hi, I am Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader.
How long have you been a stallholder here?
>> STALLHOLDER: I have been a stallholder 45 years.
Over the years, we have always tried to run our market alongside the Council, and it is
a battle.
There are some other markets in other boroughs, and they are allowed to work alongside the
council and achieve what is best for that particular market.
>> BYSTANDER: It was not really talked about much last time.
I think the NHS campaigners really deserve credit for that.
>> NATALIE BENNETT: Exactly.
When you think about coming away from 2010, tax evasion and avoidance was not an issue.
>> ADAM DANT: Sometimes, it becomes about the candidate; other times, the backdrop takes
over.
You might even meet individuals who are more charismatic and characterful than the candidates
themselves.
>> BYSTANDER: Je vous adore!
>> ADAM DANT: I am using the sketches for three purposes: first of all, just as things
in their own right as a record that just says ‘I was there and this happened.’
Then, secondly, I add colour to them at the studio and I am posting them on a diary that
Westminster are running about where I have been and my experience of covering the general
election as the election artist.
Then, thirdly, there is a lot in the drawings that I can lift out and which will inform
the finished piece of work that I am going to make to embody the whole campaign period.