Christophe Vacher: Spirit Rising - the painting process.
11/02/04 @485 | Martin | comments (14)
Here is the explanation of one of the processes that I sometimes use to paint. It is not systematic, as I also very often just block in my general colors all over the canvas first before getting into the details. But I like to change and try other things too.
In this painting (oil on canvas), I used an underpainting layer of burnt umber before I painted the background and character from the furthest point to the closest.


1-The Sketch.
First on paper, then blown up onto the canvas using a proportional grid.
It allows me to carefuly think about my composition, my proportions and how the different shapes relate to each others.


2-The Burnt umber underpainting.
From the sketch, I define all my volumes and lights with clarity, with a layer of Burnt Umber oil paint. It could be another warm color, but Burnt Umber, thinned with turpentine, offers a pretty wide range of values.
The idea here is to be able to paint later using different thicknesses over that warm layer, letting the warth show through here and there, and letting it play with cooler colors added on top.
It’s always easier to cool down a color than to warm it up.


3-The Sky.
Here, we can definitely start using this underpainting with the colors of the sky, especially in the clouds, where the balance between cools and warms is so important to give a slightly translucent effect. Another important aspect to watch: the clouds need to acquire volume and three dimensionality without losing their softness.


4- The Mountains
Mountains here must show the depth of the background. the furthest ones need to be close in value to the sky and clouds while the middle range and closer ones must give a sense of solidity, with darker values, without losing their depth and values in relation to the foreground and character.


5-The final result.
Here, the character, the eagle and the foreground have been added, with the last touch ups on the mountains and sky.
At that point, you want to review the whole painting and make sure that all the colors and values are working together harmoniously. If you see some values too dark or colors too saturated in the background that fight with the readability of the character, it’s time to knock them down. Same thing with the values or edges that would be too tame or not descriptive enough. The last look over your painting is about being as critical as you can be on your work. And if an area has been really nicely worked, but in the end comes in the way of readability or clarity of the whole image, simplify it.
Your final image is always about stylization, clarity and balance.


Christophe Vacher is a GFXartist Elite member. During his years at Walt Disney he has provided background and visual development for many feature film including Hercules, Tarzan and Treasure Planet. At this moment he shares his time between his personal work and various movie, cover work. You can find more of his work in his profile at vacher.gfxartist.com as well as on his personal site vacher.com.