Studying Art

This one is for the miniatures painters.

The painting below is Frank Frazetta’s “Death Dealer.” It’s one of Frazetta’s more famous paintings, not counting the stuff he did for Ace Books’ Conan series paperback covers. He originally did it for himself, but later licensed it for use on a paperback fantasy anthology. But he retained the rights, so it also turned up years later on another fantasy novel, and later, a heavy metal album cover, and ENDLESS calendars. Frazetta got a lot of mileage out of it. He also did several other paintings of the same character, but this is the one where the Death Dealer was sitting on a horse.

It’s an iconic artwork, so I was most interested when I heard that a minis manufacturer had produced a 3D version, a 28mm miniature of the character sitting on his horse. And yeah, I bought one. And when it arrived, I lovingly washed and prepped it... and got my paints ready...

...and realized I was stymied.

Y’see... I’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve literally been painting miniatures for something over forty years. And in that time, I have learned something about color... and light... and shadow... and the way these factors behave and interact on a three dee object.

And when I began to paint the figure? I realized that it was wrong.

Light, and therefore color, are strongest at the point where the light is COMING from. If a light is over your head, the highlights, the brightest spots in your coloring, will be on top of your head and the prominent spots facing the light source... bridge of your nose, tops of your cheeks, upper surfaces of your shoulders, and so on. Colors work differently below that, all the way to the areas where light is WEAKEST, in shadow, where colors are muted or nonexistent, depending on how deep the shadows are.

I realized that Death Dealer’s face, back, and shoulders are in shadow, despite the fact that the light source is overhead. This should not be. It’s against all the rules. The side of the HORSE facing the viewer has REFLECTIONS, indicating that light is coming from THAT SIDE. And if the HORSE is lit, the RIDER should be lit. You SHOULD be able to see Death Dealer’s FACE. And yet... you cannot. It’s in shadow.

And I repainted Death Dealer something like five times before I just said the hell with it and repainted him exactly the way he appears in the painting above. It was the only way he looked RIGHT.

And I finished him, and put him in a shadow box... and stopped to marvel at the unnatural talent of Frank Frazetta, who could heighten the mood of a painting by BREAKING ALL THE DAMN RULES, and he was STILL so good, you wouldn’t notice!

Here's to you, Frank Frazetta. We shall not see your kind of talent again. In addition to the fact that you got paid something like twenty times for the same painting!