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Self Absolution of the Titan: Step 8

Self Absolution of the Titan

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.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 9th, 2004 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Self Absolution of the Titan. 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."