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Field Artillery
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- Written by: Ray Oltion
- Category: Painting
- Hits: 13
As the title suggests, this is an antique cannon from the National Guard compound. The various cylinders and wheels fascinated me, and that became the focus of my composition. You might call this semi-abstract, since some of the forms don't exactly follow rules of overlapping shapes. For instance, the doughnut shape in the center of the image should have been partially obscured by the gun chassis, but it was so strong with the connecting diagonal struts that it had to remain in full view.
As you can see, the image makes extensive use of bilateral gradients, which creates a highlight line on a cylindrical object. The torus forms also use a cylindrical type of shading to give them the illusion of a convex cross-section. The forms suggest a polished surface in diffused light, although they depart from reality somewhat, since the ones underneath the gun barrel should be in shadow.
Since this exercise examined transparency in hues, my choices were to either deliberately merge background and foreground with overlaps, or to preserve the solidity of the shapes and apply surface effects to suggest painted shapes on the cannon. Since this image leaned more towards the representative mode, and since the original cannon has camouflage paint, the latter choice made more sense.
Of course the colors reflect my aesthetic choices and were not intrinsic to the object. The object has a violet to green gradient, and the background a yellow to blue gradient. The object also has jagged linear boundaries in hue that simulate cut pieces of colored paper randomly distributed, or even pasted upon the form, sort of like decoupage. The background is relatively simple, but employs a canvas like texture, which reinforces the message that this is a two dimensional representation in a picture frame.
As you can see, the image makes extensive use of bilateral gradients, which creates a highlight line on a cylindrical object. The torus forms also use a cylindrical type of shading to give them the illusion of a convex cross-section. The forms suggest a polished surface in diffused light, although they depart from reality somewhat, since the ones underneath the gun barrel should be in shadow.
Since this exercise examined transparency in hues, my choices were to either deliberately merge background and foreground with overlaps, or to preserve the solidity of the shapes and apply surface effects to suggest painted shapes on the cannon. Since this image leaned more towards the representative mode, and since the original cannon has camouflage paint, the latter choice made more sense.
Of course the colors reflect my aesthetic choices and were not intrinsic to the object. The object has a violet to green gradient, and the background a yellow to blue gradient. The object also has jagged linear boundaries in hue that simulate cut pieces of colored paper randomly distributed, or even pasted upon the form, sort of like decoupage. The background is relatively simple, but employs a canvas like texture, which reinforces the message that this is a two dimensional representation in a picture frame.
If you look closely you may notice some background colors splattered on the object. This might suggest the mud and grime associated with battle and the violence of exploding shells. No, there are no red splotches, as that might be a little melodramatic.
The colors may be too intense, but this image packed more visual energy than several other candidates with lower chromatic range. While the other less intense versions soothed the eye, that seemed incongruous with the inherent power and violence in a weapon. Perhaps the dominant violet hue represents the use of war by royalty and governments to protect their interests and expand their empires. Maybe you could say there is a sort of sinister beauty in such objects.
The colors may be too intense, but this image packed more visual energy than several other candidates with lower chromatic range. While the other less intense versions soothed the eye, that seemed incongruous with the inherent power and violence in a weapon. Perhaps the dominant violet hue represents the use of war by royalty and governments to protect their interests and expand their empires. Maybe you could say there is a sort of sinister beauty in such objects.
South Piney Cliffs 2019-07-11
- Details
- Written by: Ray Oltion
- Category: Painting
- Hits: 153
This digital painting is pretty old, as the date in the title suggests. I included it here so you could compare it to my more current work. Ha-ha. Maybe it hasn't changed all that much.
This has lots of spiked tree shapes which contrast with the massive blocks of the limestone cliffs, exposed by the erosive power of South Piney Creek which is now fed by several reservoirs in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. Imagine back in time how spring runoff might have been huge to have eroded away hundreds of feet of solid rock.
The use of texture, admittedly overdone, suggests the brick-like solidity of the rock, and the more patterned textures in the trees mimic the more random directions of the pine needles in the Ponderosa pine forest. Changing textures also help differentiate the shapes, even though they have the same color.
The color groups create planes in the picture from foreground to background, and reinforce the geometrical nature of the composition. This might be appropriate for a semi-abstract painting, which exists in a two-dimensional format. Imagine living in Flat Land, where the third dimension doesn't exist, except for overlays of two-dimensional planes.
The linear outlines of constant thickness provide uniformity throughout the composition, and offer value contrast with their associated group color. They also help define the shapes within the group, without destroying the unity of the overall groupings of shapes. These outlines disappear at the sky line, which perhaps suggests the intimate contact of the atmosphere with all living and non-living objects on the Earth's surface.
Bleachers Underneath
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- Written by: Ray Oltion
- Category: Painting
- Hits: 268
As the name suggests, a view of opposing bleachers from below inspired this design. You can see the posts holding up the diagonal beams and the horizontal rows of bleacher steps. The railing at the top center marks a boundary with the opening at the top.
Probably the dominant form is the x-shaped cross brace in the lower 1/3 and horizontal center. Its much darker value calls attention to itself. The circle surrounding the cross is an extension of the small white hub in the middle of the cross.
The two other elliptical shapes on the left and right emanate from the hubs on the less dominant cross braces on the left and right. They provide a gradient in value from dark to light, similar to the central circle.
Van Gogh's Mulberry Tree painting provided the basis of the color scheme, although I did use some of the inverted colors in the color wheel.
The extreme symmetry provides a sense of balance and stability, which is what you would want with bleachers at a public ballpark, but the color choices add asymmetry with complimentary reds and greens changing places from the left third and right third of the composition. Think of these colors as competing teams in a ball game. This pulls the center of interest away from dead center, perhaps in an arc from vertical center in the left and right thirds, to horizontal center in the bottom third.
A few delicate lines emphasize the radiating energy from the hubs on the left and right cross braces, suggesting ripples spreading outward. Other lines tie the central cross to the upright posts on either side.
The multiple overlays and gradients, with different levels of transparency, provide color mixing and intensity shifts. They add a sort of "atmospheric" perspective that contributes to a sense of depth.
Also, the radial gradient on the central circle at the bottom suggests a solid sphere resting on a trapezoidal base. You could interpret this shape as an orb or crystal ball from Lord of the Rings.
Probably the dominant form is the x-shaped cross brace in the lower 1/3 and horizontal center. Its much darker value calls attention to itself. The circle surrounding the cross is an extension of the small white hub in the middle of the cross.
The two other elliptical shapes on the left and right emanate from the hubs on the less dominant cross braces on the left and right. They provide a gradient in value from dark to light, similar to the central circle.
Van Gogh's Mulberry Tree painting provided the basis of the color scheme, although I did use some of the inverted colors in the color wheel.
The extreme symmetry provides a sense of balance and stability, which is what you would want with bleachers at a public ballpark, but the color choices add asymmetry with complimentary reds and greens changing places from the left third and right third of the composition. Think of these colors as competing teams in a ball game. This pulls the center of interest away from dead center, perhaps in an arc from vertical center in the left and right thirds, to horizontal center in the bottom third.
A few delicate lines emphasize the radiating energy from the hubs on the left and right cross braces, suggesting ripples spreading outward. Other lines tie the central cross to the upright posts on either side.
The multiple overlays and gradients, with different levels of transparency, provide color mixing and intensity shifts. They add a sort of "atmospheric" perspective that contributes to a sense of depth.
Also, the radial gradient on the central circle at the bottom suggests a solid sphere resting on a trapezoidal base. You could interpret this shape as an orb or crystal ball from Lord of the Rings.
Party Trash
- Details
- Written by: Ray Oltion
- Category: Painting
- Hits: 260
This image uses a tetradic color scheme with cyan and blue, magenta, and green as the main hues, with touches of orange for accents. The dominant hue might be the cyan / blue family, as the cyan bag stripes and blue box occupy a lot of the area and the blue box is most intense. Also, the starburst in the lower left corner attracts attention and uses the blue hue.
I intended to evoke a party atmosphere with the discarded trimmings and give them a somewhat sinister feel with the magenta eyes in the doll faces. Those attract the most attention due to our innate facial recognition gestalt capabilities. Also, the upright panels leading from the middle foreground to the box at middle right direct the eye into that area. They look like jewels with the faceted light and belt-like attachment.
The starburst in the lower left corner sits next to and overlaps an elliptical sink, with a darkening center. The magenta ellipse sucks the light from the blue-white radiant source to its left. This resembles a black hole next to a supernova. The green tablet on which they rest may be our flat platform on Earth for observing such cosmic wonders. It floats in an ethereal sky filled with dimly lit clouds.
This design element sets up tension within itself via the starburst / sink ellipses. It also pulls the viewer's eye away from the dolls' eyes. The radiating lines of light from the starburst propel the eye back into the design of the bag. This also creates a mysterious inversion of up and down, as if we are seeing through the Earth to the Universe that exists all around us.
The three negative spaces moving diagonally from middle left to lower right represent the void before time and space came into being. They may also represent the nothingness from which we sprang and which awaits us after death, if you don't believe in creation and heaven.
The textured orange cord on the edge of the bag emphasizes that shape, which may be the most interesting abstract form with its tight loop in the center foreground. The bag handle and orange jewel also frame the center of interest in the box with the elliptical medallion.
Inside the medallion the low chroma / intensity emphasizes the glaring magenta eyes of the dolls. The deliberate zero chroma / intensity of the faces also challenges our preoccupation with skin color. The top doll is looking at the one to her left, while the one on the bottom stares straight at the viewer. The third doll on the far right casts a mind spell on us and you can see the emanating thought waves.
I intended to evoke a party atmosphere with the discarded trimmings and give them a somewhat sinister feel with the magenta eyes in the doll faces. Those attract the most attention due to our innate facial recognition gestalt capabilities. Also, the upright panels leading from the middle foreground to the box at middle right direct the eye into that area. They look like jewels with the faceted light and belt-like attachment.
The starburst in the lower left corner sits next to and overlaps an elliptical sink, with a darkening center. The magenta ellipse sucks the light from the blue-white radiant source to its left. This resembles a black hole next to a supernova. The green tablet on which they rest may be our flat platform on Earth for observing such cosmic wonders. It floats in an ethereal sky filled with dimly lit clouds.
This design element sets up tension within itself via the starburst / sink ellipses. It also pulls the viewer's eye away from the dolls' eyes. The radiating lines of light from the starburst propel the eye back into the design of the bag. This also creates a mysterious inversion of up and down, as if we are seeing through the Earth to the Universe that exists all around us.
The three negative spaces moving diagonally from middle left to lower right represent the void before time and space came into being. They may also represent the nothingness from which we sprang and which awaits us after death, if you don't believe in creation and heaven.
The textured orange cord on the edge of the bag emphasizes that shape, which may be the most interesting abstract form with its tight loop in the center foreground. The bag handle and orange jewel also frame the center of interest in the box with the elliptical medallion.
Inside the medallion the low chroma / intensity emphasizes the glaring magenta eyes of the dolls. The deliberate zero chroma / intensity of the faces also challenges our preoccupation with skin color. The top doll is looking at the one to her left, while the one on the bottom stares straight at the viewer. The third doll on the far right casts a mind spell on us and you can see the emanating thought waves.
Eggs, cans, and architectural form
- Details
- Written by: Ray Oltion
- Category: Painting
- Hits: 291
This image combines some elements of the reference photo with drawn shapes that mask and intersect with each other. The still life consists of eggs, tin cans with pop top lids, and an architectural model cut from illustration board.
My process started by constructing outlines of the forms that overlap and intersect with each other. I wanted ambiguity in some shapes, as if they were slicing into adjacent forms, such as the circular shape in the left third vertical midpoint, and the elliptical shape of the pop top in the right third of the foreground, which modifies the value of the hue in the tin cans behind it, revealing it as a low intensity red.
Gradients in pure grey on some of the cans in the left and on the eggs add some three dimensional solidity to those forms. Other more planar forms such as the trapezoidal elements in the architectural model use flat applications of grey, but these deliberately distort the values in the still life setup to make the form appear to project and recede at the same time, giving it a dynamic instability.
The eggs suggest reflected light from their containers, and seem to glow with an inner light as well. To me they represent the potential of biological life to reproduce once liberated from a protective shell. They also exhibit primal ellipsoids characteristic of Plato's Ideal Forms, from which our perceived reality springs.
The colors remind me of Rembrandt's last self portrait, with its rich reddish browns and pale ochres. The green of the background and foreground remind me of the awakening ground during the first appearance of spring, in contrast to Rembrandt's depiction of his worn out human incarnation near the end of its life.
The intense red-orange on the Pearl's Olives can label in the upper third and horizontal center peeks out from behind the circular can lid and the architectural model. The ghostly hand shape on the label acts as a secondary focal point, due to its human element. It occupies the apex of a triangle, with the dark shapes in the foreground forming the base.
The eggs and pop tops in the lower third of the picture circulate in an elliptical path that captures the eye, almost as if in orbit around the Earth. The circular inner annulus on the intersecting disk allows the eye to escape that orbit and travel on a tangent to other parts of the image, via the pull of the intense red-orange with recognizable letters in negative space. The rings in this annulus echo the face-on rings circling the planet Saturn, and the swirling colors in the inner disk could be the yellow-gold clouds the gas giant's atmosphere.
Areas of grey contrast with the colored haze and suggest a screen on which the image has been projected, as shadows on the wall in Plato's Cave, especially with the cans on the upper left third of the picture. By contrast, the reddish-brown forms of the interior and exterior surfaces of the cans in the foreground punch through the flat plane of the picture and into the fiery center of the Earth, deeper in the cave, as if we were explorers in Jules Vern's story.
The elliptical shapes in the upright can in the middle background pierce the cylindrical form and reveal the void behind, which could be the amorphous backdrop of a rainy day sky. Indistinct blobs of color float in those voids, providing the impression of a telescope eyepiece that tunnels through the clouds and into the Galaxy, showing the luminescent gas clouds that eventually form stars and planets.
My process started by constructing outlines of the forms that overlap and intersect with each other. I wanted ambiguity in some shapes, as if they were slicing into adjacent forms, such as the circular shape in the left third vertical midpoint, and the elliptical shape of the pop top in the right third of the foreground, which modifies the value of the hue in the tin cans behind it, revealing it as a low intensity red.
Gradients in pure grey on some of the cans in the left and on the eggs add some three dimensional solidity to those forms. Other more planar forms such as the trapezoidal elements in the architectural model use flat applications of grey, but these deliberately distort the values in the still life setup to make the form appear to project and recede at the same time, giving it a dynamic instability.
The eggs suggest reflected light from their containers, and seem to glow with an inner light as well. To me they represent the potential of biological life to reproduce once liberated from a protective shell. They also exhibit primal ellipsoids characteristic of Plato's Ideal Forms, from which our perceived reality springs.
The colors remind me of Rembrandt's last self portrait, with its rich reddish browns and pale ochres. The green of the background and foreground remind me of the awakening ground during the first appearance of spring, in contrast to Rembrandt's depiction of his worn out human incarnation near the end of its life.
The intense red-orange on the Pearl's Olives can label in the upper third and horizontal center peeks out from behind the circular can lid and the architectural model. The ghostly hand shape on the label acts as a secondary focal point, due to its human element. It occupies the apex of a triangle, with the dark shapes in the foreground forming the base.
The eggs and pop tops in the lower third of the picture circulate in an elliptical path that captures the eye, almost as if in orbit around the Earth. The circular inner annulus on the intersecting disk allows the eye to escape that orbit and travel on a tangent to other parts of the image, via the pull of the intense red-orange with recognizable letters in negative space. The rings in this annulus echo the face-on rings circling the planet Saturn, and the swirling colors in the inner disk could be the yellow-gold clouds the gas giant's atmosphere.
Areas of grey contrast with the colored haze and suggest a screen on which the image has been projected, as shadows on the wall in Plato's Cave, especially with the cans on the upper left third of the picture. By contrast, the reddish-brown forms of the interior and exterior surfaces of the cans in the foreground punch through the flat plane of the picture and into the fiery center of the Earth, deeper in the cave, as if we were explorers in Jules Vern's story.
The elliptical shapes in the upright can in the middle background pierce the cylindrical form and reveal the void behind, which could be the amorphous backdrop of a rainy day sky. Indistinct blobs of color float in those voids, providing the impression of a telescope eyepiece that tunnels through the clouds and into the Galaxy, showing the luminescent gas clouds that eventually form stars and planets.