It occurred to me - due to the reading I am indulging in at the moment on propaganda, political cartoons and pop culture - that I seem to draw/paint two types of images. One is just to tell a story (Show Time, Silly Season, While They Were Sleeping), the other is both a story and a “political” message (Aporia, My Beloved and Dogma¹). By political, I mean a reflection on society as a system. But I usually don’t set out to do this (I guess My Beloved and Dogma are exception to that statement). Aporia was meant to be a story piece, but it consists of a woman covered in maggots and wearing a tattered dress standing on the bones of farm animals in front of a massive train, and holding a smaller version of that train. Yep, no political message there. None what so ever. In absolutely no way does it represent neoliberal economic policy, which is what I had been reading up on while painting it.

P.S. Although I have given dates for these images, it is only a best guess on my part. They were all painted between 2005 and 2007 though. I think. That also applies to what software I have listed (Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter and Corel Photo Paint, and Ambient Art Rage).

1. if I had ever finished Dogma [↩]

This picture isn’t finished. It is just at a point at which I can walk away for a while, despite being incomplete. There are issues with the anatomy (either the arm is too long, or the torso too short, and the positioning of the legs is wrong, though I am not sure why). In a few months I will return to it to detail and refine it; and hopefully address those anatomy issues. At the moment, I need a break from this painting. I have included - below the fold - some of the keys stages this painting has gone through.

I did learn something though: three light sources is one light source too many. It is too hard to keep track of, and varies in different areas of the image. The idea was to have the candle lighting torso of figure, and casting shadow and light onto background. A Weak blue light coming from unknown light source on right, and finally strong back lighting from sky and snow/ground.

The first sketch for this painting was made in 2003. It was biro on paper and was more symbolic then the final painting. The colour sketch was made about a year later. I was trying to learn oil painting techniques at the time. Unfortunately without much success. Both sketches were relegated to the box beneath my bed.

Over two years later I decided to rework some old ideas. I took a photo of the painting and imported it into Adobe Photoshop 5.0 for some initial clean up and then imported the painting into Corel Painter IX. It wasn’t until this point that I started to use references to fix up the anatomy and lighting, and later for the animal skulls.

I use/manipulate references in three ways: one is very loosely, where it is usual for me to eyeball the reference quickly (such as the skulls). Another is where I follow the reference closely, but still let the painting determine the reference, not the reference the painting - if that makes sense, such as the lighting on the face which was softened in comparison to the photo. The other is to follow it very closely, even painting over the top of the reference. Surprisingly (at least to me!), it was the cardboard, candle and foil train (see reference photo) that I painted directly over. It also shows how I use paintovers as a tool, not a means of tracing (or cheating). That last technique is a sticky point for many people. It is often considered cheating.

This picture caused quite a few issues with respect to the background. The initial sketches didn’t allow for one, and as the picture developed this became a major problem. I ended up going through about three or four backgrounds before deciding on using the train.

Details:

Work In Progress:

References: