The Night Prelude, Part 6

I don't have a lot to say about the finished painting for Careless Juja's album. I suppose I can say that it's done, that I'm happy with it, and that it's now at the framer being appropriately adorned for my wall at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2. I suppose I could add that it was a fun little ride for such a straightforward piece, and that I'm pretty stoked by how close the painting came to what I originally saw in my head. Maybe that last bit isn't too surprising, though. Like I said, it's a straightforward piece.

Just for a refresher, it started out as this sketch:

After putting this sketch together, I then made this quick and dirty color comp:

Terrible right? But it gave me more information than I had before it existed (if you can believe it).

And so I painted. And I painted. And I painted some more (with a little more painting thrown in for good measure). And then there was retouching. Lots and lots of retouching. A full day of retouching. But it was worth it. All that work to bring you this result:

It's called the Night Prelude. It's oil on wood panel and measures 20" x 20". Thanks a lot for following along.

The Night Prelude, Part 5

At this point, I'm zeroing in on the end of the piece so this is likely to be the last post regarding its process until I get it scanned. For me, the changes to a painting become increasingly subtle as it grows nearer to completion, with the changes at present on this particular piece having mostly to do with background and foreground elements. In essence, I'm mostly working on trees, weeds, and fog, and it's likely not to be interesting to read about going forward.

By the end of last week, I'd gotten the painting to this point:

As you can see when compared to the previous post (link), there's some background work that's been done. Whereas before you'll see that there are larger, more nebulous shapes indicated for the background, I have finally begun to define individual trees and branches.

So far this week, I've done a few finishing details on the dress, and a fair bit of work on the foreground, with a small amount of additional progress on the background made as well. Here's where I left it yesterday:

All I've got to do, really, is finish things up. The grass and brush at front will require another pass, as will the background. I'm still not 100% sure how much detail I'm going to indicate on the tangled forest behind the figure, but I'll easily be able to work that out as I go. Too much detail may pull focus from the figure and could undermine some of the atmosphere, while too little detail might make the whole thing feel a little under developed.

The way I see it, there's no reason that I shouldn't be able to make that decision and bring the entire piece to a close by the end of today. But if that's going to happen, I guess I better get on with it.

The Night Prelude, Part 4

I get distracted easily. I've also got a lot on my plate right now that keeps me from painting as much as I'd like. And the sad and unfortunate events of this week did not help to keep me focused. So progress is a little slow right now. But, progress has indeed been made. Here's where we're at:

What's different from the last update?

Well, I tightened up the hands and made another pass on the dress. While I wanted to begin indicating the designs on it, I didn't get very deep into that task. I also did some preliminary work on the belt.

But, after reaching this point I realized that I didn't like where the belt was going and I was unhappy with the hand position of her left (our right) hand. Initially, the idea behind the belt was that it was made of metal. However, once I painted it accordingly and made it consistent with the lighting, it became immediately clear that the necessary highlights and reflections were distracting at best. So, I began to rethink the belt design a bit.

As far as the hand goes, I felt it to be lacking in character. It just kind of sat there without saying anything. So, I decided to open the finger positioning up a bit. Not sure if it says more now, but it's at least more interesting to look at.

With the added designs, the new hand position, and the blocked-in whip, here's where I was left:

The designs on the dress are a little difficult to see, but believe me when I say that they're there. Also there are some trees added to the background at right.

Despite the extreme amounts of glare and the fact that it was not shot head-on, I included this last image because it shows the designs a bit clearer, and because I figured that there'd be at least one person reading this who'd dig seeing some paint texture, which is definitely present herein.

So what now? Well, the plan is to just start finishing things. I need to do a final pass on the belt and finish the whip. I need to finish the background and start painting the grass and brush at her feet. Lastly, I want to augment the glow of the well-lit face, and perhaps glaze the figure back as it gets closer to the ground. But we'll see.

For now, I'm going to get to it and attempt to ignore everything else.

The Night Prelude, Part 3

I've been really bad at remembering to take process photos. On the occasions I actually have remembered, the results have not been optimal. In my studio, there are three windows coming from two directions plus a virtual menagerie of lights. While this is great when I'm working, it makes for less than ideal conditions to photograph my work. But, I'm trying my best and I'll make a go of walking you through any important missed steps.

When I last wrote about the piece, I'd blocked in large fields of color with very little detail save for some work done on the face (link). After that post, a fair bit of progress was made. I began to block in some detail in the dress, did another pass over the face, and began to define the background.

Yeah. There were a lot of steps missing. Either way, it left me with a piece that looked like this:

There's something odd about how this painting is coming together. Typically, I keep the image of what I'm trying to make inside my head for much longer. The full value structure (the mapping of my darkest darks and lightest lights) typically doesn't start coming together until further along in the process, and that structure is almost always a compromise between what I had in my head and a reaction to what I've completed to that point. This time around, for whatever reason, it seemed like a good idea to get to the point a little sooner. So I did. I have no idea if this will make for a better painting, but I'm sure we'll find out.

An important aspect of what I failed to document was the day I did a second pass on the dress. Of course, I completely wiped the area after a full day's work, so the the next day the painting would have looked exactly the same, but it would have been a great misstep to show you all.

Now, I've always had a difficult time painting things that are bright red. More specifically, I've always found it difficult to give bright red things the illusion of three-dimensionality while still keeping the color pure. I suspect that a major part of this difficulty is due to the fact that I have a very difficult time even looking at bright red things to begin with. If the color is intense enough, it starts to bleed like red often might on old CRT television sets. As a result of this visual bleeding, the longer I look at bright red objects, the more two-dimensional they begin to appear.

While the above may sound like complete nonsense, I assure you it happens to me, and it's very frustrating. So, when forced to depict bright red objects, I need to work on them in short bursts, and I'll often repeatedly pull the painting out from under the lights so as to decrease the intensity of the colors in order to better evaluate my value range. On the day in question, I didn't do any of that and was determined to slog through. I can only tell you that the result was terrible, which would be why I ended up wiping it. What you see above is the result of my second go of things the following day.

Anyway, after I got things to the point above, I finally decided it was time to do a pass over the London hood, the sleeves, and the hands. I also took some time to sort the flowing dress out. Here's how it looked:

Lots of glare on the piece, and the red is a little dull, but it's fairly accurate value-wise.

Today's agenda includes indicating a pattern on the dress, some touch-ups here and there, and an additional pass over the arms and hands. I'll probably start putting the belt together, as well. Then, time permitting, I'll start finishing the background. At the moment, I see no reason this thing shouldn't be put to bed next week sometime. Until then...

The Night Prelude, Part 2

Art-wise, I have not had a productive couple weeks. I've been dealing with tax stuff and life stuff, yard stuff and house stuff. There's been some Spectrum Live planning in there too, not to mention time spent fretting and thinking about all manner of things. The last couple of days, though, I've finally started getting things together on this piece.

While I already admitted that I've not gotten as much painting time in as I'd like, I wasn't entirely slacking. There were a lot of logistical decisions that needed to be made for this new painting. The most important of these decisions was how large I was going to paint it. I settled on (for some reason), a twenty-inch square. This size ended up being rather convenient as it allowed me to try out a new surface which happened to be available at the correct dimensions: Dick Blick's Studio Birch Wood Panel.

Truth be told, working on a wood panel would be pretty much identical to working on hardboard. The only real difference would be the preparation of the surface. Typically, my surface preparation is fairly limited. I tend to usually work either on board that already has gesso on it, or I paste a piece of watercolor paper to the board's surface and seal the whole thing off with matte acrylic medium. This go around, however, would require the same steps I'd normally have to take were I working on canvas. First, I'd need to use some sort of sizing (in my case PVA sizing), then follow that up with the usual three or four coats of gesso.

Applying the sizing is a pretty straightforward process. It's got the consistency of watered-down Elmer's white glue and is easy to smear around the surface. The gesso, on the other hand, was a little more difficult for me. When gessoing a canvas, there's a texture to work into. It's relatively easy to see whether or not the coats are reasonably even by how visible that canvas texture is. On smoother surfaces, however, I've found it harder to see where the gesso is building up. To combat this, I usually have a lamp pointed directly at the side of the board so that the light rakes across the surface and reveals the contours of any lumps.

In between each coat of gesso, I did the usual light sanding to knock down brush marks and to further combat any gesso lumps. Still, despite my best efforts, the gesso did not go on as evenly as I'd hoped. My solution? I set my brush aside and bought a four-inch painting roller. The roller did a much better job of keeping the gesso coats evenly spread, plus it added a very fine texture that I quite like. I like it so much, in fact, that provided the texture doesn't create too many problems in the digitizing process, I'll likely be using the roller from now on.*

The process of sizing and priming the wood panel took a few days and required a couple additional days of drying time. When it was finally ready, I did a simple graphite transfer of my sketch onto the surface and sealed that under a simple underpainting of dioxazine violet.

You're aura — it's purple!

I let that dry and then did a first pass over most of the surface.

The photos all were a little blown out. In fact, a lot blown out. Which is why I took an additional shot.

I guess it's fair to say that I'm a little inconsistent when it comes to starting paintings. Sometimes I build the whole thing up to a certain level and then start systematically finishing things. Other times, I'll just start finishing things straight off the bat. In this case, I kind of got lost in the face. I knew that a lot depended on getting the face to feel right, and so that's where I initially concentrated my efforts.

At this point, I'll probably leave the face alone for a little while and attempt to bring the rest of the figure up to that level of completion before really giving it (and the rest of her) any real polish. Plus, you know, there's the rest of the painting that needs some attention. I mean, she's got an environment around her, and all. I should probably look into working on that, as well.

In order to get all that done, I should probably get to painting. So... yeah. Off I go...


* Notes: In art school, I was taught that the proper way to apply gesso was either with a brush or a large palette knife. Rollers were strictly verboten. While I see why you wouldn't want to use a roller on stretched canvas, I honestly don't see why you should be able to use one on a board. I say, use whatever it takes to get the job done and gives you results that make you happy.

Secondly, the use of a roller has been a stock joke used by my father-in-law for as long as I've known him. He continues to be endlessly entertained by the notion that I, as a painter, should use one. I have to confess that I felt a little irritated that the years of joking ended up being prophetic in any way as I walked out of my local hardware store with roller in hand. I'm sure his response to hearing that I have finally caught on to the roller's qualities will be something like this: link.

The Night Prelude, Part 1

The instances of people actually picking up a phone to hire me have been rare. In fact, I think it's only happened once in my twelve years as a full-time freelancer. The rest of my work has come via emails or through one-on-one interviews. That my most recent job became the second time a telephone was used in order to commission artwork is just weird. But then, the whole job is kind of weird. But a really good weird. The best kind of weird there is, actually.

The task handed me was to create art for Careless Juja's third album. I must confess, I've never heard of this musical group due to the fact that they seem to have recorded music more recently than the mid-90's. But musical taste and knowledge were happily not an issue. What mattered was that the man on the other end of the line knew what he wanted and was insanely flexible. Even better, I wasn't being hired because I was some artist who happened to fit the bill. I was being hired because he actually liked my work and wanted me, Steven Belledin, to paint something. Told you it was weird.

The great thing about all this was that the phone conversation was simple and straightforward. This is what I want on the cover of my album filtered through your sensibilities and here's what I can offer for that. The offer and the job itself were absolutely my cup of tea, and what's better is that I really needed some new work that I could hang on my wall at Spectrum Live this May, so it was very well timed to boot.

The assignment was simple: a moody portrait of a woman inspired by the character Sonia Belmont from the Castlevania video game series. I was left to interpret that as I pleased.

Once again, my ignorance spilled forth as the last time I played a Castlevania game, the protagonist was called Simon Bellmont and I had to blow into the cartridge to make the darned game work. But this lapse in knowledge wasn't an issue, either. Without even asking, I was supplied with a brief synopsis of Sonia's role in the Castlevania franchise, as well as a bunch of images from the more recent games for my consideration.

Looking at those images, I have to confess that I was a little worried. The reason for this is that the games take place between the 15th and 18th centuries, but the costuming more closely resembles what one might find in a modern pleasure dungeon. It's not authentic in any way and, quite frankly, there's more skin showing than is practical. While that started to set off some degree of alarm, I was assured that this was the opposite of what was needed of me. In fact, my most recent Badass cover was what brought this client to me, and he appreciated the fact that I'd managed to avoid any unnecessary sexualization of the image's only female character. The supplied art was merely a starting point to be accepted or ignored as I saw fit.

Whew. Told you he was flexible.

I took the provided reference and I set it aside for the time being. Then I went about doing research on era appropriate fashion, which in this case was European clothing from the mid-15th century. Very early on, it became clear why the concept artists behind the games abandoned any attempt at historical accuracy. Simply put, clothes from that point in history aren't exactly cool looking. So what does one do when faced with this dilemma? Easy. One makes stuff up.

A little pulled from this era, a little stolen from that era. Sprinkle in some elements in keeping with the tone of the reference, and throw in a touch of a knight's surcoat. Top it all off with a London hood, and bam! Just as out of place as the aforementioned reference, but much more in keeping with my own sensibilities.

This is how the thumbnail came together:

There she stands in a field of brambles lit by a flash of lightning, holding her whip.

While this did get approved, I though it a good idea to show this thumb to some friends and the consensus seemed to be that having her stand in deep grass made her feel short and took away some of the elegance I might otherwise achieve. My concern with pulling her out of the grass was that it might begin to feel that she was standing in front of a backdrop more than existing in a real environment. But on the other hand, I couldn't argue the shortness. At the end of the day, I ended up stealing heavily from their advice and put it all together in this sketch:

To be sure, my concerns aren't really addressed here. But I kind of don't care. Besides, so much can change when paint finally starts hitting board. Fleshed out volumes and the establishment of space can change a piece drastically, so I'm going to move forward and see where it leads. If my concerns bear fruit, perhaps a solution will present itself along the way. Or not.

So this is about where I'm at. I've got a 20"x20" wood panel prepared and the drawing is transferred. I'll be doing some acrylic painting to seal the drawing and kill the white space. Should be an interesting ride.