The story behind the painting
This post describes a creation process. The creation process of the oil painting titled “Storm travelers” 2017 by artist Daniel Heller. Where Digital process and traditional painting mesh.
1 – IMAGE CAPTURE A very unusual formation of clouds hovering over the top of a hill at Storm King Park, NY captured my imagination. Seeing the image on the computer screen did not strike me as having a high potential of becoming a “fine art” photograph, although the clouds are very enticing. I associated this image with a painting in which for the first time I developed the concept of my series “Knowledge proliferation”. The dramatic moving clouds and the imminent storm coming were determined to be a perfect subject for my next painting which I decided to name “Storm travelers”.
2 – SIMULATING THE STORM The placing of digital assets within an image and mixing them during composition is usually the first creative step. In this image, a bunch of irregular flying elements of different shape and color was digitally placed quite accidentally in different areas of the sky to simulate the appearance of a storm. The amorphous odd shapes, the jagged edges and the diagonal direction of movement, all intended to create tension and a dynamic appearance.
3 – THE TRAVELERS The travelers arrive on the scene. They metaphorically represent mankind. The travelers have already moved away quite a bit from the dangers of the storm and are about to enter the bright future, the age of advanced knowledge, technology and peace on earth. This is one of the main concepts perhaps the main thread in my series “Knowledge proliferation” in which I describe my optimism about humanity entering a brighter future.
4 – THE GATE The opening is being placed in the image. The travelers will pass through this gate on their way to a brighter future. Everything represented in this area of the painting needs to be very bright and in contrast to the dark colors representing the storm, a metaphor representing the “dark times” in our mankind’s history.
5 – THE STORM SEQUENCE The storm sequence is introduced in the form of three panels. They represent different times in history and three phases of a moving storm, from an acute state of danger via an intermediate phase to a complete calmness and serenity, allowing the travelers to move on through the gate. As the storms move from left to right, the three panels would assume dark intermediate and light colors, “gestural” graphic elements that will vary in intensity until the state of serenity is reached.
6 – STORM ENHANCEMENT During this phase, much darker colors and different flying elements were introduced to make the storm look more real. At the end of this sequence in the computer simulation, it was determined that the image was sufficiently satisfactory to serve as the basis for beginning the “Storm Travelers” oil painting.
7 – THE PAINTING AT 60% COMPLETION Although the basic concept and structure of the created digital image have remained, the painting at 60% completion looks already more “pictorial”, a painting. Most of the accidental jagged edge elements that were placed originally in the sky have been abandoned in the painting process. Colors have changed, and the storm elements moving through the three panels have completely replaced the clouds of the original photographic image capture. This is where the photograph became a painting.
8 – “STORM TRAVELERS” COMPLETE On 6/27/2017 the travelers have reached the gate, a.k.a the painting was considered to be finished. Originally published on Linkedin
