Separating foreground and background and thinking of the First World War
Added 2019-03-05 17:19:43 +0000 UTCOnce of the upsides of the failed attempt to paint this on aquaboard is that I knew of one major pitfall in this piece - it wasn't very smart of me to have Uldor's sword and Maglor's spear convene in a space that was cluttered with horse and saddle and leg. If I hadn't abandoned the last attempt, I already knew I'd have run into huge readability problems there. Redoing the piece allowed me to work with that. (Of course, it might have been smart to just de-clutter the middle, and yeah, that's what good artists do thumbnails for), but that's one of the things I find hardest to change - to have an image where the dynamics and the poses fit, where I managed to avoid tangents, but then to move elements around to have empty spaces where I want them.
It is possible to de-clutter areas with colour and values, and I went about that here, muddying the horse, saddle and Maglor's leg in earth-tones so that Uldor's sword will stand out in paler steel blues.
I'm still listening to the audiobook of "No Man's Land" by Simon Tolkien (yes, the grandson) while painting, and I have to confess it's weird to listen to the German soldiers being called "the Huns", while painting Easterlings who were probably modelled on Mongols, and end up on the same evil side of the conflict from a British point of view - and then I remember that my grandfather was one of those Huns at Verdun. I never met him; he died a few years before I was born. Sometimes it feels as if this war is so incredibly far removed, and yet it's only two generations from where I am...
Meanwhile, welcome to four new Patrons - Yolante, Cat, Caitlin, and Roxanne!
Comments
Yes, Sassoon was one of the few famous WW1 poets who could actually write about the end of the war. I've read the trench poets a few times with my older students; from the jingoism of the early days to the disenchantment (and the birth of modernism) with Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Interesting to read the Golgatha reference - Simon Tolkien apparently took that over from Sassoon in one of his Somme chapters!
Jenny Dolfen
2019-03-06 06:49:46 +0000 UTCThere have been a lot of WWI anniversaries lately, lots of remembering. Your remarks above made me think of a poem (by an English poet of German extraction, whom I met through The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles!), Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). 2. Reconciliation WHEN you are standing at your hero’s grave, Or near some homeless village where he died, Remember, through your heart’s rekindling pride, The German soldiers who were loyal and brave. Men fought like brutes; and hideous things were done; 5 And you have nourished hatred, harsh and blind. But in that Golgotha perhaps you’ll find The mothers of the men who killed your son. November 1918.
"Blade" McMicking, D.I.
2019-03-05 22:43:56 +0000 UTCMy worry is that, when the memory fades, making sure it will never happen again suddenly sounds less important than "taking your country back"... :(
Jenny Dolfen
2019-03-05 20:43:08 +0000 UTCWell, I know nothing about the technical aspects but I do know that I love what I see! Well done! <3 As for Verdun and the war, the scar is slowly healing, but I believe that we will never forget the trauma (which is a good thing finally, because as long as we remember we will be able to prevent it from happening again)
Litsen
2019-03-05 19:57:25 +0000 UTC
