Quent Cordair Fine Art

At this point, enough of the background has been blocked in for me to get an idea whether or not the lighting is working. I think it is working rather well, and I expect that the more the piece progresses the better it will work.

I received a question on an earlier post which I think ties in well with this one. Basically it concerned the reference material I am using for the background of this painting, and how I am tying the different pieces together, along with some invention on my part, to produce the final result.

I am using seven different images as references for the background: two for the sky and five for the mill and the steel. The two pieces of sky scrap (artist’s lingo for reference material) I am using just for the colors. One has a really nice sunset palette and one I am using for the colors in the silhouettes. For the mill, I have two images of the actual equipment (both black and white) that I am using for the basic shapes, textures, relative sizes and values (lights and darks). This background is largely based on one of those, though I have moved some things around to allow the addition of the windows and to increase the height through which the metal is falling. The other I am using more for the details. The other three images are of more modern steel mills, and I am using them as references for the colors. Because of the changes I made to the mill and the addition of the windows, I have to make up at least seventy percent of the lighting. This isn’t really too difficult given the relatively simple geometry of the beams etc. In addition to making up much of the lighting, the structure of the windows and the beam behind the figure are also not based on anything in the reference images.

Now I am getting to the fun part of the background, the furnace. At this point, it helps to be working quickly and with a wet-on-wet painting technique. I can more easily block in the beginnings of the smoke and steam, and get the blurred-out effect caused by the heat and bright light.

I had a question come up about this piece that I thought would be worth discussing briefly here. It had to do with the difference between illustration and fine art and into which category this painting would fall. I think the difference between the two is that fine art should evoke an emotional response without an accompanying story. This means that an illustration can also be a work of fine art if it meets this standard. Knowing the story or enough art history to be able to recognize the symbolism in a painting may help to more exactly pinpoint a complex theme (clues can also be included in the title), but the basics should be in the visual image. Having said that, I just want to be clear that even though this painting began as an idea for a cover illustration, it is not intended to be an illustration from ‘Atlas Shrugged’ or even a painting of Henry Rearden, but a painting whose theme is inspired by the qualities of that character. This may seem to be a subtle difference, but it is a very important one. I want this painting to be accessible and inspiring even to those who haven’t read the book.

I am continuing with the process of blocking in the base colors. The image I have included is, unfortunately, not the best (the wet paint is reflecting a lot more light than the dryer paint, and the high contrast is giving my camera a hard time) but it gives a good idea of the progress. The next few steps will be more of the same, so I will keep posting images, but the commentary will be brief unless something comes up. This would be a great time for questions, especially if there is any aspect of the painting process that you would like to have discussed in more detail.

I began working on the actual paint application by blocking in the basic colors for the sky. I blocked in the beams as well so that I could soften the line between them and the sky while both were wet. In general, lines will tend to get crisper and cleaner toward the foreground. The idea here isn’t necessarily to finish any particular section, but to get the primer coat and the sketch covered with the base colors and values that will be in the finished painting. This way I can pick the final colors based on their relationships with the colors around them. I think this will be important given the mix of reference materials I have to work from and the unique lighting. Once this is done and the paint has dried sufficiently I will go over everything with a second coat, painting the final details. I will be using a very limited color scheme, mostly reds, yellows and blacks to keep the piece very warm and add to the mood.

Since I will be doing a lot of color adjustment to this particular painting, I decided to do a small oil study to work out the basic color scheme. In addition to providing a color reference for the main painting, this sort of study also serves as a sort of warm-up exercise and is a lot of fun to paint. This study is 14 X 18 inches, and is painted on the same linen as the final piece (though primed with acrylic as opposed to the more traditional but time consuming rabbit skin glue). I generally like to title these things based on the actual painting. In this case I haven’t chosen a final title yet, so I will go with the current working title and call this piece ‘Study for First Heat’.