Quent Cordair Fine Art

Before proceeding, I should mention that many of the images of this piece, like this one, will show a lot of reflected light off of the brush strokes. I will be using a lot of dark colors and thicker paint than usual. Also, the fireworks and city lights as well as some of the figure details will be painted into an oil glaze that will be highly reflective. This all adds to the difficulty of getting good pictures of the painting. Keep that in mind as you read the posts, and hopefully when the piece is finished and dry I will be able to get some better photos.

The first issue I needed to address was the overall lighting scheme for the composition. I don’t really have any reference material for the background other than half a dozen photos of various firework displays and nighttime city skylines I found online. What ends up in the painting will have to be created based loosely on those images. The scrap I shot of the models was taken in brighter light than will appear in the finished piece since cameras have trouble with detail and color in dim light. So the lighting on the figures will require a little creative tweaking of its own. I decided to begin by roughly chopping in the background colors. This should give me an idea of how to adjust the figures so that they fit in to the painting.

After arranging a little photo shoot with the models, I used the resulting scrap to make this scale sketch. You can see that the buildings have been sized down to accommodate the firework display, and the pose of the figures has changed a little. It is very often the case that once I have models in front of me, I realize that the position of the figures in my original sketch is either awkward or completely impossible in the real world. I use the sketch to convey the basic idea to the models, and then get as close as I can to the correct feel of the pose. In this case, I think the final position of the figures is actually much better than the original. They feel more natural, closer and more intimate. Also, the difference in their height creates a nice diagonal in the composition.

The second sketch shown here is a cleaned up version that will be transferred onto the canvas. For this painting, I will use a grid to expand the sketch to full scale on paper. Then I will coat the back of the sketch with charcoal, tape it to the canvas, and trace over it like a giant piece of carbon paper. This technique works a little better that sketching directly on the canvas if, as in this case, the oil primer coat is quite smooth.

This next piece I am particularly excited to work on. It will feature a couple looking out at the city on New Years Eve. I came across this thumbnail sketch in an old sketchbook while working on some preliminary ideas for a commission. This composition was not chosen, but I decided I would paint it anyway. This second sketch is a more fully flushed out version that I did for the commission. It is also the one I will use to explain the idea to the models.

New Years is a singularly romantic holiday in the classical sense of the word; reflecting on the past year’s accomplishments combined with excitement and optimism about the year to come. In this composition I will add a romantic element in the contemporary sense with the young couple at the window. I originally intended to have them looking out at the snow falling on the city, since I personally find that to be romantic. However, while discussing the idea with Sara, as I often do, she was amazed that I wasn’t planning on fireworks over the city. Honestly, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that either. It will make a much more dramatic and effective composition, it will represent New Years more clearly, and it will be fun to paint. So the fireworks are in, and the snow is out.