Greg Manchess - Feminine Skin using blocky, painterly strokes

 Red Arrow: highest contrast facial hues   Blue Arrow: color shifting shadow hues   Green Arrow: body hues

Blue Arrow: full value range   Red Arrows: limited value range of skintones

So after a bit of a break, I have finally got back into painting and have made a few observations on my road to creating art that is more brush “strokey” and “painterly than I have done in the past. I created three or four new female character studies, some of which have gone well. My last painting of a young blonde girl gave me an awful lot of trouble because I was unable to determine how to replicate the soft, smooth and unblemished flesh of a young woman. Hair, clothing, shoes and such are easier with the greater shifts in color, tone, temperature and planes, but to create the illusion of smooth flesh with its minor tonal changes and temperature shifts is hard.  I remember mentioning this to Gregory Manchess one day and his response was, “yeah, that can be difficult.”  So today, I am going to look at two of Greg’s lovely female character paintings to try to get some insight into how he is able to accomplish the feat. Because if you look at Manchess’ females, even with the blocky and thick strokes that he is known for, his women are still soft and feminine.

Let’s first look at Deja Thoris in his Princess of Mars painting. The initial thing that I notice (and it may simply be due to her skin tone) is that the value gradients in her skin, especially on her face are very gradual. There are very few areas where he creates a hard edge between a light and shadow area. The transitions are much softer and the value changes are much closer to each other. This seems to occur on her body and arms as well as her face. I guess this should be obvious, but it is as if he painted the flesh the same way he would have modeled a cylinder or sphere rather than a cube with it shaper plane transitions. You can get away with those sharper transitions in John Carter’s flesh to create a more manly appearance, but not in Deja. The other thing I see is that a shift in color temperature can help to define the form of a smooth object. If you look at the temperature shift on the underside of her right breast, you can see that the form is defined more by the shift from cool to warm than it is defined by value change as the spherical shape curves back into the thoracic region .

Moving on to the second image, this is one of a fairer skinned woman from a pulp book cover. Here again, I notice that the overall value range for the skin tones is small in the mid-key range. I will focus first on the area of the flesh in shadow because this most obviously reinforces the observation above that a change in temperature is defining the form more than the value shift. If you look at this image in grayscale, you can see that her legs are nearly the same value except for the extreme edges where the form curves away from the viewer. Though in color, you can see that the color shifts from a cool violet to a relatively warmer pink hue. This temperature shift defines this curved form without having to deal with a sharper gradient change which would detract from that appearance of a smooth surface. If we then turn our view to the rib cage area, we see that in grayscale, the value shift isn't that great but is enhanced by the temperature of the color in order the create a more obvious shadow area without a higher contrast value change which again would sharpen the surface and detract from the smoothing affect. Finally, the woman’s face has that same gradual gradient in values, and values in a smaller range to smooth out the form. The highest area of contrast being in the area of the cleft of the nostril where it meets the cheek and the cheek where it is in direct light.

Conclusion: In order to create the appearance of a soft and smooth surface when painting the skin of a young woman, smoother gradients should be applied, smaller ranges of values should be used and form should be defined by color temperature shifts and not only value.

Petar Meseldzija - Eowyn and Lord of the Nazgul Underpainting

I had the pleasure of the opportunity to attend Illuxcon 2011 last week, and one of the highlights for me was the chance to watch a painting demostration from Petar Meseldzija in person.  Petar spoke on the value of emotional content in your work and then gave a whopping 3 hours demo where he attemtped to paint a folk tale-esque countryside scene for a new book.  He stated that he was not entirely happy with the result however, the demostration itself was a huge success from my point of view in that it showed many insights into Petar process.  One important piece that cannot be underestimate is the power of Petar's underpainting.  In this example of Eowyn and the Lord of the Nazgul, you can see the level and finish of his underpaintings.  If you check out his personal blog you will find the exact colors that he uses, but what I think is more important is that he does not use a single color like burnt umber for his entire underpainting.  He uses variation of monochrome, both warm and cool.  For example, many of us use burnt sienna and raw umber.  Burnt sienna is a very warm orangy brown, where raw umber is a much cooler almost bluish brown.  This combination of monochromatic tones enables the underpainting to begin to exhibit characteristics which helps define form as well as create depth as well as begins to expose what color relationships should be setup moving forward.  And like a Norman Rockwell painting that I once noticed all the light leaks showing through, Petar allows portion of the his underpainting to show through in order to add depth, increase tonal qualities and in some cases, simply allows it to bleed through to fill "light leak" holes in areas where he hasn't push paint into.  The way he paints, he seems to obliterate parts of the image with his brush strokes and uses the underpainting in part to help reel the image back in as he moves the paint over the canvas (or panel).  It still boggles my mind how beautifully craft his simple underpaintings are.

Petar Meseldzija - The Noble Dragon

I have been looking through Petar's work alot lately and it is truly amazing to watch the progression in his art from his older work to his newer stuff.  You can actually see the evolution in his brushwork from painting to painting.  Though brushwork is not the focus of today's image.  Today, I want to point out the relationship between saturated and unsaturated colors.  In this piece called the Noble Dragon, you can see how Petar has used saturation to help divide the positive and negative space of this piece.  The wings and body of the dragon, along with the rider and winged horse make up the positive space of the piece.  In that area is where all the action is happening.  The movement is there.  The ferocity of the dragon is there.  The rest...well we don't care.  That isn't true, the negative space provides wandering area for the eye to explorer.  Just when it becomes too much to stare into the jaws of this monster any longer, you can turn your gaze to the wonderful little waves below.  Too calm now?  Look up and BANG!  Bright saturated blues and reds and yellows.  Primary colors none the less.  This elevated level of saturation helps hold your interest at the focus point of the image and allows the rest to recede off into the supporting environment.  If the water was a deeper, richer, bluer hue, what would happen?  You'd be looking at the water because the rods and cones in our eyes are more stimulate for more saturated color.  It is more "exciting" as it were.  So Petar keeps all the most important information, all the exciting colors at or near the focal paint and the action of the image.  Keep that in mind next time, you decide to render that little bird in the tree in the corner with cad red light.

Petar Meseldzija - The Rescuer (Sketch)

Today's image is an unfinished sketch from Petar.  I wanted to comment on this piece for a couple of reasons.  First, I was following along on MuddyColors that Petar was working on a sketch based on Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer. Petar reproduced that sketch about 8 times, tweaking the gesture and pose until it was EXACTLY what he wanted.  In some cases, the changes were so minor that one might not have even noticed the difference unless it was pointed out.  Yet he redrew the figure again and again until he was happy.  Secondly, I have been working on a sketch of Black Cat and I am finding that the pose and gesture very important to the feel that I want to convey.  Are the hips right?  What about the tilt of the head?  So I look at this preliminary sketch and wonder, "how many times was this redrawn to get to this point?  The gesture is powerful.  The weight distribution is setup so that you can feel this knight lunging that heavy spear into the dragon's mouth.  The shapes that creates are just lovely, slightly off vertical, the body creating a nice dramatic diagonal, a twist in the torso that shows the body at an angle that the volume of his chest really not just fills the space, but commands the surroundings.  I know that often people (myself included) can become a slave to reference, especially if it is good reference, but this image did not come from a camera shot.  It came from the meticulous tweaking and modifying a person's character, personality and actions so that this is not just a drawing of a figure, it is an avatar, an embodiment of the character that Petar is trying to share with the viewer.

Petar Meseldzija - The Unicorn Chronicles 3

Today I have choosen the Unicorn Chronicles 3 cover to analyze and I have been wondering what to say about it.  There are alot of things going on in this piece that make it strong, like the gesture of the horses (unicorns), the brushwork that denotes and emphasizes their coats, the energy of the movement.  But I think what really makes this piece strong is the simplicity of its design.  I have indicated a basic value pattern for this piece.  It reminds me of a conversation that I had with Dan Dos Dantos about simple but effective compositions in illustration, especially single figure images.  The value scheme of this piece focuses the viewers eye on the figure by making the figure the center of bullseye.  Dark values in the girl's hair are surrounded by much lighter values in the horses create a high contrast relationship at that point to reinforce the viewers gaze.  Also, the gesture lines of the horses all lead back to the figure.  The shape of the tree limbs work like arrows to guide the eye down towards the figure.  There is just layer upon layer upon layer of decisions that make you want to focus on the figure.  In addition, the figure then is also the most rendered portion of the painting.  The unicorns are adequately addressed for sure, but the details of buttons, and reflections on the belt and wrinkles in the pants make the eye want to stop and take in all the information that is being presented to it.  These simple yet effective compositional mechanisms create the foundations of an extremely strong artwork.  Layer on top of the Petar's masterful brushwork, exilerating color choices and mastery of animal anatomy and tree design, it is no wonder why this piece works so well.

Starting Anew - Petar Meseldzija Steel Bashaw 13

I have been gone for a long time. Other things have occupied my time, namely, creating paintings. One of the reasons for this art analysis blog was for me to idnetify things that I found appealing in works of art, analyze them and see how I might be able to incorporate them into my own work. Well, in order to do that you have to work on your own work. In doing so, I have identified a number of shortcomings in my technique, in my process and in my understanding of the principles of color, light, gesture, brushwork, etc.


This has prompted me to start this analysis project again with a more directed focus. I will be looking at drawings and paintings from an artist that really respect and admire, Petar Meseldzija for the next few posts (perhaps more than a few).

I have been looking at this painting all day. It is not the full painting, but the version is very good quality and enabled me to look at a number of things. The first thing that jumps out at me is the brushwork. This painting is just full of loosely placed strokes from the contouring cool raw umbery ones in the river bed to the short, unblended ones that wrap around the tree trunk. In each case as well as the majority of the remaining strokes, they are used to not only apply color to location on the picture plane, but they are used to define the form. WOuld the tree branches look round based on the color and lighting, even if the strokes weren't there? I would suspect yes. However, the brush strokes make them "feel" round, as if you can imaging taking your finger and follow the contour of those branches.

The next thing that I have identified that I don't exactly understand is the use of specific colors in the shadow areas. So the shadow area under the red cap is being warmed up by reflected light from the underside of the red fabric which warms up the shadow, even though the light is warm and yellow from the sun coming through the trees. The shadow on the underside fo the out stretched tree limb is a similar warm brown. I have read that warm sunlight will reflect off the ground and warm up a shadow, so that seems to make sense. However, the shadow on the same limb but closer to the base of the tree is significantly cooler. I can understand that the light is flooding in from all sides and not making the shadow as dark a value, but cooler? So warm light makes cool shadows unless reflected light warms them up, almost like having another warm light source. In this case, the limb has very few things to flect light into that shadow area. So it is cooler. Some light reflects up into the bottom of the shadow area fromt he ground which warms it relative to the cooler side shadow. Makes sense. But why is it that the limb further from the tree has such warm shadow when it is in the same situation? Maybe it isn't in the same situation. That left side of the image is cooler when you squint at it. No sun light is coming through those trees, so the light is cool, so the shadows would be warm.

I think I have it.  In nature warm light yields cool shadows unless there is something to redirect the light back into the shadows, like the ground or a relatively warm object. Cool light from a blue sky for example makes the shadows warm unless there is a relatively cooler object near to reflect the light back into the shadow to cool it down. This is already making me thing about the lighting in my current painting on the easel. Two things I need to do, get those brush strokes to help define the form and straighten out my light source temperatures.

Henry Yan

Henry Yan is an instructor at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. While I was working on my life drawing skills, a friend of mine told me about Yan's charcoal sketches. When I looked at his website, I was struck dumbfounded by how awesome the brushwork on his oil painting is. This image is one I have been staring at for a number of days and it just floors me. Yan utilizes big, heavy strokes which are masterfully applied in this piece. A few areas are of note. There is a blended brush stroke on the model's right leg that meshes with the turquoise stroke of the furniture. This one strokes helps to define the 3 dimensional space by allowing the eye to focus on the harder edged strokes of the model's stomach, knee and face which are closer to the viewer in 3D space. I large pinkish stroke on the couch which is even closer to the viewer in space is boldly placed, added to the dimensionality of the piece. Lastly, the are a number of varied color blended strokes on the wall area which again, pushes this area farther back into space but indicating less deinition. Those strokes are also less saturated than the foreground ones which helps by adding a spacial atmospheric affect. I can't stop looking at the bright, hard edged torse stroke. MASTERFUL!

Jeff Jones

I have been extremely lax in my posting on this art analysis blog. I do apologize for this and will make a better attempt at finding compelling, interesting and notable art to display and analyze here.

Today’s image is from the artist Jeff Jones (or Jeffrey Catherine Jones) and is titled Sheherazad. I must admit that I was unaware of Jones’ work until it was introduced to me by Rebecca Guay. Jones has a very sensual feel to the works and employs a muted palette of colors while making the most of composition to offsite a relative lack of detail. If you look at the body of Jones’ work, you will see a definite arc which begins with a very Frazetta-esque design and color aesthetic and moving more toward a heavier application of the paint and in some cases, a more impressionistic handling of the subjects. This image is an earlier work and illustrates this earlier, thinner application of the paint. It appears that Jones began with a burnt umber underpainting that was applied to a canvas support. I would suspect that a wipeout technique was employed in order to achieve the variation in umber thickness. A thicker application of whites and ochres over areas of burnt sienna and umber create a transparent material effect as well as a more solid flesh rendering which pushes those areas forward in illusory 3 dimensional space of the picture plane. Jones then carves out sculpturally the form of the hair and body allowing the under umbers/siennas to create the hair and shadow areas of the arm and neck. Even though this is a relatively simple execution of these techniques, it is the masterful treatment which keeps me staring at it and returning for more.

Petar Meseldzija

If you are into fantasy art, I have no doubt that you are familiar with PetarMeseldzija and his Steel Bashaw painting series. They have been feature in at least the last few Spectrum annuals. This is the 9th one in his series and has an awful lot of things to talk about contained in it. Petar seems to use a trompe l'oiel framework in a number of his paintings which to me adds a definite fairytale quality to the presentation of the image. As I sit here looking at this image, I think to myself "I really love his horses." THis horse looks as if it is ready to jump right off the page onto my desk. Its mane and tail are flowing, head down, legs out stretched. The amount of movement captured here is uncanny. The angle of the horses body lines up with the angle of the ground below creating and arrow head that points to the left and back to the imminent threat which draws Steel's gaze. The tree is amazingly organic, with branches that contain what appear to be eyes, snake heads and claws (at least in my imagination). Petar has an amazing ability to render fabric as well, the cape the dress flowing in the wind, bending, twisting, curving. His neutralized clouds push nicely into the background help his horse to push forward for that jumping off the page feeling I just mentioned. His colors are saturate, yet not so much as to be un-lifelike, or unreal. And if that wasn't enough, we have a scare orc, ogre, morlock to threaten us from a different direction adding yet more complexity and interest to this piece. I highly recommend visiting Petar's website as the rest of his work is just as striking.

Brom

Brom. What a great name. I always wanted a name that didn't distract you by having one before it or tagging along afterwards, like Brom...or Cher. Maybe not Cher. I had the pleasure of meeting Gerald Brom at Illuxcon 2009, and if you are familiar with his art, you might be surprised at the man behind the art. He is very meek, courteous and pleasant even though his work often takes on a dark, sinister, or grotesque form. In looking through Brom's work trying to find a piece to review, one jumped out at me that superficially is slightly different than what you expect, that being men and women in bondage looking attire, people with eyeballs in their hands, or creepy looking dolls, mannequins, etc. This? It's a tree. I think my friend and fellow artist Steve Anderson would love this tree with its gnarled branches, twisted trunk and dark canopy of leaves. This piece has a similar characteristic as Glen Orbik's painting from the last post in that the background is basically totally in silhouette. There isn't a lot of detail and the value contrast is much lower than the foreground. When you look at the background, you see a Ferris wheel, a happy go lucky Ferris wheel that any child would enjoy. But here is where Brom puts his take on things, because a Ferris wheel elicits images of a carnival and frankly, carnivals are creepy. Plus it is drenched in reds and yellows, the colors intense as fire. What is going on back at that carnival? We aren't sure, but that redness throws up a caution flag to the viewer's psyche. But let's get back to tree itself. Sure it is knobby and gnarled, dark and twisty (much like Brom's inner person or at least the part of him that he projects with his art), but that isn't what draws my attention to this form. The thing that draws me in...is the cage hanging from the branch. Why? It reminds me of a quote from Richard Schmid. When he was painting a landscape with a barn, he asked "So what is that in the window of the barn?" And his answer? "I don't know, but isn't it lovely?" Take a look at that cage. What is in that cage? The answer? I don't know but it's it lovely? That little piece starts my mind to thinking, what IS in the cage? How did the cage get there? What relationship does it have to the carnival with its stark white color against that fiery red? Isn't it lovely indeed...

Glen Orbik

Earlier in the week, I had mentioned Glen Orbik. I find it appropriate to take a look at one of his images since his name is fresh in everyone's minds (or at least in the minds of the people that read the Lipking post). As I flip through my Spectrums, I come across a few artists whose style makes me think, "I really would like to paint like that." Glen Orbik is one of those artists. Having an oeuvre comprising of monsters, aliens, noir, pulp, vikings, etc, Orbiks work interests me. Plus, as we have discussed this week, his work is filled with painterly brush strokes. This piece has a number of interesteding qualities to it that are work noting. For one, the background is made up of very flat, neutral color shapes. They almost appear as cardboard cutouts, but what I think Mr. Orbik was going for was to create a stark contrast between the backup and the horseman. With the high contrast, high detail saturated color, the foreground horseman pushed significantly more forward than the flattened, more neutral background. Looking again at brush strokes, we can see the soft-edged blur effect of the strokes in the tail, the hooves, the flying dirt mounds and parts of the cape. Not much more to say on this one. It has been a rough week...

Richard Schmid

I have heard Richard Schmid referred to as "The John Singer Sargent of our time". Here is another artist that I was surpised to be unfamiliar with until about a year ago, especially since looking at Schmid's work has helped guide me (at least mentally) to a greater understanding of what I want to accomplish with my own art. If you are familiar with Schmid's work, it might surprise you that I choose this piece to look at today. But something about this duck intrigued me (I know, goose, swan, whatever). It is listed on his site as conte on gesso. So this appears to be a gesso primed panel with brush stroke textures brushed onto the surface before it dried. That was not so much the intriguing part as "This is conte???" I have used conte before. Never have I been able to create something that looks like brush strokes with conte. I wanted to get back to looking at work and the brush strokes that created it and when I saw this, I was a bit dumb founded. If I was a betting man, I would have put ten bucks down that this was an underpainting in burnt sienna based on the brushwork. I would have had to skip those two cups of coffee at Starbucks if I made that bet. Conte? Really? I must be doing something wrong. Look at all the strokes in the grassy area, some bold, some transparent, some wiped out. The wing edges appear blurred or softened down in spots to indicate that movement I discussed the other day. Conte? Maybe it is that texture of the board that I dismissed earlier as being less than intriguing. Maybe I was wrong. I know that I have done some conte work on canson mi-tienes paper and the texture of that paper lent itself to creating some interesting wall effects, almost like brick or concrete. Could the this combination of surface and media actually be creating a brush work look that I am struggling to pin down in my oil work? Dominick Saponaro talked to me about having his digital work look like his oil work and vice versa due to him using similar techniques when using both. I think this may be the case here as well. Since this is the look that I strive for in my oil painting, I think when I whip out my conte for next week's life drawing session, it may be an interesting night.

Alphonse Mucha

As an illustrator, I should be ashamed to admit to this, but I have only recently become aware of the artist Alphonse Mucha. Yes, I heard the name, but his work had never inpacted me enough to take a second (or in some cases first) look at his images. However, the more modern illustrations I looked at, I started to see these stylistic notes that seemed to be variations on a theme, an original theme that may have influenced all these new pieces. Then I saw Mucha and I understood. Many of Mucha's illustrations have this composition, a graphically designed backdrop, almost abstract in quality with a figure or figures in the foreground, drawn and painted in what I would compare in modern times to comic book-esque stylings. The piece I have choosen here seems to epitomize this style. This woman stands in a nearly unrealistic poistion, one which accentuates the lines of her form, elbows and head back, chest thrust forward on tippy toes, all situated in a swirling mass of hair locks, flowing scarves and dress bits and then framed by otherworldly manifestations of geometric figures, circles and arcs, organic flowering shapes...it is just a near overload of information, yet, this potential chaos is organized in a manner that flows, leads the eye, provides places of rest for the viewer before it engages you to look further, or again. How did I not know Mucha? I am ashamed.

Casey Baugh

This is one of the the most visual stunning paintings that I have seen in recent months and it is by an artist named Casey Baugh. Baugh is a former student of Richard Schmid and from what I have ready, Baugh moved to where Schmid lived and studied in his studio, learning HOW Schmid painted, but strayed from his teacher in WHAT he should paint. Baugh seems to be primarily a figure painter, and from what I have seen...he's good at it. There are two things I would like to focus on in this painting, body language (or more generally figure positioning) and as with Lipking's post, brushwork. Anyone who has ever been within two feet of a woman would recognize how real Baugh has depicted this woman. She leans away from something (or someone) to the left of the canvas, yet arm outstretched, gaze afixed, it setups a dicotomy, which to me, perfectly depicts the nature of women. The diagonal lines of the body from hand to shoulder and the parellel leg/shoulder positioning juxtaposed against the verticles of the chair and her head/core set up a great dynamic in what might otherwise be a static sitting in a chair pose. The brushwork also accentuates this dynamic "movement" by creating these soft edges of the blouse and her hair, setting up this vibration which implies movement. It is like the stop motion animation of the past. It always appeared static, even though there was movement until computers were invented that simulated motion blur. Motion blur occurs in the human eye in which when something is in motion, the eye does not register all the detail in the spam of time from when it is stationary through the movement and on to become stationary again. This blur in a still image tricks the mind into believing there is movement in an object. I can't imagine more movement in a seated woman than right here. By the way, did I happen to mention I love redheads?

Jeremy Lipking

So, I started to get worn out searching for images to analyze. I had been looking for paintings that really affected me either emotionally, intellectually or viscerally, but after months of looking for these types of pictures, the joy of experiencing art became more like a school project and some of the magic wore off. In taking some time off, I have found that wonderful imagery has simply leaked back into my consciousness and now, without having to force the issue, I think I have a number of new images that I would like to talk about. That being said, I would like to talk about this image from Jeremy Lipking. Being interested in fantasy art, it was interesting to learn that Lipking studied with Glen Orbik, a Spectrum favorite of mine for his often pulpy and painterly style. Lipking himself has deviated a bit from the fantasy realm that Orbik enjoys, but there is some overlap in his work that shows a definite link to the Pre-Raphaelites like Waterhouse and Draper. This image may be considered more of an oil sketch than a complete painting. It's hard to say because even in this sketch, Lipking's prowess with the brush eclipses even my best efforts at a "finished" painting. A friend of mine named Grant Cooley recently began doing master copies, targeting certain images for specific characteristics. That idea will be put to use here in that the obvious strength of this piece is the brushwork. Lipking paints on lead primed linen. This image shows a figure seated on a chair in front of her painting box and palette. You cannot see her facial expression, but from herr body language, you can tell that she is calm, quiet and being very thoughtful in her task of painting. There is a combination of thin and thick strokes in this piece, where Lipking employees the standard practice of thin darks and thicker lights. The sigularity of certain strokes emphasize the forms perfectly, such as a the singular diagonal stroke of the chair leg, and the two thin horizontal strokes indicating the environement to the upper left of her head. The thinness of these background strokes really helps to push the environment that surrounds the figure into the distance, allowing the thicker, more delicately place strokes of the figure's fabric and hair to push her form forward. The ultra soft edges of the strokes in the figure's dress help to indicate a level of movement in the figure, even though the positioning and pose are relatively static. One expects at any moment that this quiet girl will spring to life and begin to apply paint strokes of her own. It is honestly these soft edged strokes that I was to apply in my own work.

Greg Manchess

Hello all. The Constant Art Student returns from more months of slacking. I can't say that I have been art slacking as much as blog slacking. I have been drawing and painting with most of my spare time, but I feel compelled to make a comment on a painting from Greg Manchess that I have been studying. My latest endeavor has been to make a conscious effort to loosen up my drawing and painting style. Since Greg is one of my favorite artists with this looser painting style, I decided that analyzing his work as I would an old master painting would be beneficial to my cause. Spectrum 16 came out this year and had this wonderful portrait painting of C3PO from Star Wars. Big, bold brush strokes could be seen in the repoduction, so I thought that it would be a great place to start. What a deceivingly simply looking painting this is. Forgive the lack luster reproduction of the image I have posted here. I am sure that it pales in comparison to the original, however, a number of points of note can made using this version. To give some background on how I proceeded with studying this painting, I placed a sheet of acetate over the image and mixed paints to color match what Greg was using (or what I percieved he was using) to get the colors here. What I found rather astounded me. Colors that I thought were right out of the tube such as yellow ochre or naples yellow were not that simple when viewed directly over top of the original. The main areas of color that are in the midtone range are a combination of yellow ochre AND either raw unmber or burnt umber. Wheras Greg most likely used Old Holland Violet Grey for the light areas, I was able to make this color by mixing Ultramarine blue and cadmium orange with white. Ultramarine blue, napthol red, alizarin crimson and combinations of white or umbers fill the shadows. Once I found how to make these color mixtures, I started to realize the temperature shift that Greg employees in this piece. Shiny metal is difficult to begin with, but Greg has simplified the process by using a basic cool light, warm shadow composition. You can see the cool blues and greys in the light areas and this temperature pattern is reinforced by what I saw in the choice of raw versus burnt umber usage. The cool lights on the eye indentations (for examples) are reflected into the warm shadow areas directly across the socket. On another front, I also noticed Greg's expert use of soft and lost edges on the forehead of the droid and well as his left and right shoulders. Considering what I have learned from this "simple" painting, I am glad I didn't start with one of his mutliple figure Conan pieces.

Frank Brangwyn

I just finished reading a dizzying dissertation on color theory, specifically about warm vs. cool color theory. What is coming to mind after that is something that Greg Manchess said to me. "It doesn't matter what the color is if the values are right. Could this truly be the key? Is this perception of warmth versus cool colors related to intensity and saturation rather than warmth vs. cold? If it is purely warmth vs. cold, how do you have relative warmth and relative coolness. In this painting by Frank Brangwyn, I am looking at what is pushing the figures to the forefront. Even though the ship has reds in it, they are less saturated that the browns in the figures clothing. So the figures push forward. There are sharper details and line in the figures than the ship, so the ship pushes back. There are higher value contrasts in the figures than the ship, so the figures push forward. And if you view the image in grayscale, none of these observations change. So I ask, does color temperature matter if value and edge and saturation and intensity are correct?

Louis Daguerre

Today I am going to thank James Gurney for posting this piece on his blog. I am not familiar with this artist, however, this piece is a fantastic example of the topics that I have been looking into, specifically how light affects objects and how color temperature affects an image. In this image by Louis Daguerre, we see a number of architetural elements illuminated by moonlight (presumably based on the name of the piece.) There are some drastic differences in how light is affecting the different planes based on there orientation to the light source. Let's look at the division that occurs nearly straight down the center of the piece. Everything on the left of ceneter is being directly illuminated by the moonlight. Everything to the right of center is being indirectly lit from either moonlight bleeding around the edge of the planes and filling the shadow side with light, or it is being lit by reflected light bouncing off of other planes in the piece. The differences in how the light is affecting these areas is extraordinary. The directly lighted planes show colors that are more saturated and shadows that are deeper and darker in spots. The deatils are sharper with harder edges and greater ranges of value and color are observed. The indirectly lit area shows desaturate areas of color and the values of the shadows are much higher than in some of the lighted areas. The areas illuminated with reflected light from the ground or nearby wall surfaces show brighter values and a local color in the reflected light. There is a marked lack of detail in these areas and the edges are much softer. This image provides me with alot of information that I will use on the current painting I am working on which the lighting is on figures but direction of the light source and positioning of objects are similar.

Frederic Remington

Here is a piece from illustrator Frederic Remington. I chose this image as it is a great example of my current study of how light and color temperature affect an image, it's mood and its feel. Here we have two native Americans on horseback. It appears to be winter at night. Remington however made the decision to use a warm lighting and warm shadow composition which nearly entirely negates the expected feel of winter at night. This landscape is warm and inviting, expansive and displays no hints of foreboding, danger or conflict. The purples of the shadows and the sky in conjunction with the reds of the horses and background mountains envelops the viewer in an inviting scene that regardless of the weather and isolated locale, you want to enter in and explore. For my own piece of mind, I tested this asertion and put the image in photoshop and applied color curves that cooled the shadows and sky with a bluish hue rather than red violet. The effect was obvious in that the snow became cold. The atmosphere became uninviting and the feel was bleeker. This all by doing nothing but cooling the image down. I am beginning to see a pattern: Cool light and cool shadows yields a dreary and bleak feel. Warm lights and warm shadows yields a hopeful, inviting and comfortable feel. I am expecting then that a mixture of either cool lights and warm shadows or warm lights and cool shadows will yield specific feels in a work. The next few images I post will explore that.

Aaron Miller

I asked Aaron months ago if I could analyze a piece of his and he told me yes. Then I proceeded to stop posting. Sorry Aaron. Now that I have picked back up on this, it is time to get Aaron in here. However, I have decided to look at his Agents of Artifice contest, third place winning piece as considering I am currently focusing on lighting, this is far more complex than the other piece I was looking at. (Congratulations again Aaron, BTW) Aaron has some wild lighting going on in this piece. He has multiple light sources going on here, reflected lights, deep shadows and highlights all occuring in night time atmospheric darkness. The major light source appears to be the monster's eye, casting a yellow hue on the angel wings and the monster's hands/fingers. Interestingly, the yellow light appears to be on the opposite site of the left hand fingers than it should be considering the poistion of the light source, yet the illumination on the area is convincing and doesn't look out of place. The green ooze is emitting a yellow/green light which is providing rim light for the left arm and the spear head as well as adding some reflected light into the shadows of the back of the head and tinting the hightlights on the teeth. There are cool blue rim lights on the monster's right hand and some on the teeth, some on her legs and a touch on the back yet none of this light is reaching the edge of the angel's wings. There is a bright highlight on her chest and on the top of the monster's head that like many Rembrandt paintings, doesn't appear to come from anywhere, unless it is the spear head in which the reflected light from her chest and its head is actually brighter than the source. And this light seems to have no effect on the monster's left arm. Yet it works. Moonlight highlights the rain drops as they fall, the red ooze adds warm reflected light into some of the lower shadow areas. At this point in my own painting, I cannot even conceive of trying to tackle a piece with lighting this complicated. Kudos to you and if you are reading Aaron and have anything to add, please chime in.