First Heat: Step 11
These two images show the blocking in of the crane and the ladle. The crane, unfortunately, is one area that will need a lot of tweaking before I am happy with it. The scrap I have for it is poor, and the lighting will be tricky to work out. The ladle, on the other hand, I am already quite happy with, though it will need some deeper shadows, and some fine tuning along the rim. It will be much easier to tell exactly what needs to be done to both once the surrounding elements are completed. One challenge with the next few steps of this piece is definitely going to be the white of the metal. All of the surrounding colors that were mixed with at least small amounts of burnt umber are dry enough to paint over safely. The pure titanium white of the metal stream, however, is still very wet. Blending the second layers of color into this mix will be delicate work.
Tags: Bryan Larsen, First Heat
February 11th, 2005 at 9:00 am
Hi Bryan-
I’d be interested to know why you chose the posture the figure assumes in the painting. I would guess you wanted to portray the relief and satisfaction that Rearden found in his mills. But I can’t help thinking that he just looks tired. Was this intentional? I get a much stronger sense of Rearden from the original cover idea in Step 1. Thanks. I am continually impressed with your skill.
February 11th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
Bryan,
Really enjoying the progress on the Rearden piece. You have him pegged as to age pretty well, and I like your answer regarding the coat, and not wanting him to have too much of a “private detective” look in a trench coat. I have a question regarding the building elements and beams at the top of the painting. The edges seem drawn essentially in strict isometric, with little perspective. Sometimes in photography there is a flattening sense such as with a telephoto lens where you see a dramatically lessened perspective effect. Is that what you have in mind here - something of a flattened perspective that hints at an unusual vantage? Just curious. Not a criticism. I think it works fine, and provides a sense of heaviness, substance and weight such as you would find at a steel mill.
February 11th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
Dear Mr Larsen,
Just looking at the wonderful study (step 6). I guess, glowing metal is something that light comes out of But: when painting, you can’t make anything whiter or brighter than just “plain white paint,” so how is it an oil painter amazingly achieves light effects like that, sort of a glowing or light-source object ? What’s the secret?? (I am reminded of that, was it British painting, sort of pre-Raph period, of the glowing Chinese lanterns, which was celebrated at the time, I’m sure you know the one I am referring to.) Anyway, how does an artist do that, it is amazing. Your “Heroes” picture also has (more overt, less subtle) that “glow from” the rocket engine of course, but the study in item 6 here is magic. (Can I buy it ?! ) I think of it as a sort of three dimensional light. Much as “objects” (in good painting) are quite three dimensional, have “weight”, perhaps you could say that amazing “light” in paintings has three dimensionality: it is not just a cartoon .. it is light thought-out in three dimensions. What’s the secret ?!
Kindly.
February 14th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Excellent question JP.
The effect of light in paintings is something I have always been interested in. As you point out, the brightest color available to a painter is white paint. If you put white paint on white paper, it doesn’t seem bright at all and certainly doesn’t glow any more than the paper does. The key to achieving the effect of a light source or even a bright reflection in a painting is contrast. The darker the colors that surround a glowing object, the brighter that object will appear. This means that you have to be conservative with the use of bright colors in a painting like this one so that where they are used, they really stand out. If you were, for example, to paint a person writing a letter on white paper by lamp light, the colors used to paint the white paper would actually be browns and grays. The pure white you would save for the lamp. Once the painting was complete, your eyes would interpret the colors based on what your brain expects to see given their context in the image. The paper would appear white, and the lamp would appear to glow. It can be a bit disconcerting during the painting process, because all of the colors will look wrong until enough of the image is complete for your brain to make the switch. One trick I use is to never paint on a white canvas. That way white paint looks brighter from the beginning.
You also mentioned the three dimensional aspect of light sources in paintings and, if I understand your meaning, it can be significant because of the very directional visible effect light has on its surroundings. Your brain will automatically place objects spatially based on the direction from which they are illuminated. Silhouetted objects will appear to be between the viewer and the light source for example. Also, objects that are more brightly lit will appear to be closer to the light source.
As for the study in step 6, I will be sending it to the gallery as soon as I am finished with it.
Mark,
I had not intended to paint the beams in isometric. The perspective used in this piece is not very extreme, and the slightest change in an angle can alter the overall effect. I looked again at the beam in question after reading your comments, and I see exactly what you are talking about. The angle of the bottom edge of the beam did change slightly when I was blending the sky behind it. It isn’t much, but it is enough that I will need to fix it. Luckily that will be very easy thanks to its position in the piece. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Kelsey,
The effect I am hoping to achieve with the posture of the figure is relaxed (through confidence and satisfaction), not tired. I think that too attentive a pose would translate more as alarm or concern given the surroundings and the fact that I will not be able to show much in the way of facial expression. I am fairly confident that once the figure is painted it will have the right feel. Let me know what you think.
Thank you all for your questions and comments, and by all means, keep them coming.