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First Heat: Step 13

First Heat

In this step I have begun the application of the final colors to the background. Depending on the area in question, the technique will vary a lot. The sky has been painted over entirely with opaque colors. Having the base coat in place makes it much easier to blend the final colors as there is no problem with the primer coat color showing through. I have reduced the amount of yellow in the sunset, and added more reds. In the darker clouds and the silhouettes of the smokestacks there is now less brown, and more violet. By keeping the yellows and earth tones of the interior of the mill out of the sky, a greater sense of depth is achieved. I also added highlights to the closer clouds and changed the shapes slightly to better match the perspective of the rest of the image. Inside the mill I started by laying down a very thin glaze of burnt umber and ivory black in linseed oil. The glaze is semitransparent and allows the base colors to show through. The deepness of the shadows was adjusted by controlling the ratio of the pigments to the oil and the thickness of the glaze coat. Highlights and fine details such as vapor, sparks and rivets could then be blended into the glaze. Near the stream of metal I gradually made a transition from glaze to pure color in order to blend into the wet titanium white. This process is basically complete for the area behind the crane and ladle down to the furnace. I will use the same technique to finish the furnace, the floor of the mill, the metal mould, the support beam and the crane. The ladle will need a bit of the same in the shadows, but pure paint touch-ups elsewhere.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 at 10:32 am and is filed under First Heat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “First Heat: Step 13”

  1. JP Says:
    February 18th, 2005 at 1:45 pm

    Wow! The difference between step 12 and then 13 is dramatic. Regarding my earlier comment about the incredible “glowing” effect of the wet steel. Just as you said this is even more pronounced now. It is an incredible “trick” (a “trick” in the sense that say heavier-than-air-flight is an incredible “trick”). It must be extremely difficult to grasp everything that makes that work, all at once, and make it happen over a long difficult work. This is an astonishing display of technique, and the technique completely serves the larger (thematic, epistemological, etc) aspects of the artwork - amazing! Of course it all looks offhand and easy.

  2. Bryan Larsen Says:
    February 24th, 2005 at 6:00 am

    Thanks, JP. There are many factors to keep track of while working on a piece like this one. The initial planning and the studies definitely help. I also spend a lot of time looking at the painting between work sessions trying to assess the overall effectiveness of things like the lighting, and deciding how to proceed. I take it as a compliment that it looks easy, that means its working.

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About Bryan Larsen ~

Bryan Larsen

"I was born on February 12, 1975, and have been drawing as long as I can remember. By the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be an artist, although at the time I didn't have a clear idea of how exactly I would use my talents to make a living.

"As I continued studying art, I began to suspect that fine visual art was dead. No one seemed interested in teaching students how to draw well, or paint well. More often than not, my own skills exceeded those of my instructors.

"The only field left that seemed to require good drawing, painting, and compositional skills was illustration, and therefore I began studying illustration at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. I became even more convinced that I had made the right decision in staying away from fine art as I endured course after course of required "drawing" and "painting" classes in which instructors required me to draw with "less focus", or use ridiculous materials such as shellac, glue, sand, salt, etc.

"My second year at Utah State, I met Damon Denys. In discussing Art with him I realized that there were other people who believed that technique and subject matter were indispensable components of any work of art. I then decided that I would work to develop my own painting skills with the purpose of creating artwork that I considered worthy of being called Fine Art.

"Since that time, I have studied on my own: Drawing from live models to learn the human form, studying proper painting techniques from any source I could find ample reason to trust, and developing a philosophy of Art based on reason, and life on earth.

"My goal is to portray the heroic and romantic in human nature and human achievement in a realistic style and a modern setting. I place particular emphasis on composition, technique, realistic detail, proper craftsmanship and consistency of style."