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« New Year’s Eve: Step 7
Landscapes: History and Significance »

New Year’s Eve: Step 8

New Year's Eve

I took at least a dozen shots of the finished painting in a number of different lighting conditions in an attempt to get a decent image for this post. This is the best of the bunch, and with the exception of the exaggeration of the brush strokes in the fresh paint of the walls and the loss of detail in the brighter areas of the shoulder and shirt, it is fairly accurate. The paint on the walls is fresh because, as I mentioned in step 5, I decided to darken them considerably once I saw the way the original colors were playing off of the figures and the dark scene outside the window. While I was at it, I also refined the perspective on the widow itself, extended the shadow of the figures out of the picture on the left, and added some shadow detail to suggest a smaller light source on the right. I think all of the changes strengthened the composition and added a more intimate, warm feeling to the piece. I was also able to refine the light cast on the windowsill to better reflect the fireworks, now that I had the finished sky to refer to.

Although this was a relatively quick and somewhat experimental painting, I have to admit that I love the end result. It will take some time for the thick white paint in the brighter areas of the fireworks to dry completely so that the painting can be varnished and professionally photographed, but hopefully at that point I can make a better image available. Until then, enjoy New Year’s Eve and please send in any last comments or questions. Thanks for reading.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 1:32 pm and is filed under New Year's Eve. 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.

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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."