Quent Cordair Fine Art

At last I have the piece back from the photographer and can make the preparations to ship it. I am always nervous during the week between dropping a painting off and hearing from the gallery that it has arrived in one piece. I hear way too many horror stories of packages folded in half, punctured, run over or lost.

This final image, (the end result of professional photography, a high resolution transparency scanner and a little digital cleanup of the occasional bit of reflected light etc.) is about as good as a digital reproduction of this piece will ever be. The colors are pretty good and of course the detail is great, but there is still a lot of subtlety, especially in the darker tones, that just doesn’t survive the transition. For example, I did end up painting some gradation into the background of the piece in deep crimson red. It has the effect of adding depth to the piece, and of making the blues in the backlighting and the earth really stand out without being too busy. In fact it is really hard to see at all except under just the right lighting conditions and at just the right angle. The computer and the scanner have apparently decided that the red doesn’t exist at all. I don’t think it takes anything important away from the digital image, but it certainly adds a lot to the original.

You will also notice that the signature, as I discussed earlier, is very subtle in this piece (especially when compared to my usual signature style). I think the simplicity of this composition required it.

The final title I have chosen is Self Absolution of the Titan. It gives just enough of a hint for the viewer to determine what is going on in the image.

I am very pleased with the way this piece turned out. I think it is one of my best executed as far as the end result matching up with the way I envisioned it at the beginning. It has exactly the right feel and visual power…definitely one of my favorites so far. If there are any last comments or questions, please send them in. Thanks for your continued interest.

I have yet to take the piece to the photographer (wet paint and all) but during the wait I thought I would send this image of Asher, now three months old, helping me put a second coat of titanium white on some of the highlights. His only medium so far is drool, but it’s never too early for a lesson.

With the exception of a few touch-ups (some of the white will need a second coat as soon as it dries…just as the fire did in Winter Evening) and a signature, the new piece is finished. I have decided to leave the background flat black instead of giving it a slight gradation as I originally intended. The only purpose for the gradation would be to add some depth to the composition, but I think it has enough as it is. Also, I really like the striking simplicity of the piece as it is now, especially with the high contrast between the figure and the black background. I think that adding the gradation would actually detract from that. For the same reason, I will be keeping the signature on this piece very subdued.

As with Winter Evening I will have this piece professionally photographed. I will send in a final image at that point, complete with all the touch-ups and the signature. In the mean time, please send in any questions or comments.

In this image the figure is complete. The funny thing about the robes is that they were actually easier to paint than they were to arrange on the model. It took a little longer to paint them, but it involved a lot less poking of people with safety pins. I should thank the model for being so patient: there aren’t a lot of guys who stand around for forty-five minutes trying to wrap them in a sheet. I used a third model for the hair mainly because the reference photos I took of the first model didn’t contain enough information. I added some brighter highlights to the right side of the figure, something I realized I would have to do once the robes were complete. The last remaining step is to paint the earth. That and decide on a final title.

In this step the black background has been blocked in, though none of the gradation is painted yet. The flesh tones of the figure have also been painted. As I mentioned before, I intend to keep the contrast quite high to add an element of drama to what would otherwise be a very static composition. I thought a young, athletic Atlas was an appropriate twist on the old grizzled archetype typically portrayed given the inspiration for the composition. I was lucky enough to have access to a model that seemed to fit the Greek ideal-athletic-body-type, though I did refer to a second model to exaggerate the musculature.