MATERIALS
• Stretched canvas.
• Artists’ quality acrylic paints.
• Artists’ brushes.
IMAGE ONE
I chose a 16 x 12 inch stretched canvas, from ‘Highly Strung’ Picture Framers of Eumundi in Queensland, which I primed with a liberal coating of Red Ochre Gesso. Using a white charcoal pencil, I drew in my guide lines. The canvas was placed at my work station, with my reference photographs.
IMAGE TWO
I started the sky: Some Cerulean Blue and Antique White, with a touch of Magenta to make a lovely mauve, using a large ‘Teklon brush with strokes from one side of the canvas to the other, bringing the mauve down to three-quarters of the way to the horizon line. Then using white with a smidgin of Magenta, and again with the broad strokes from side to side, I started from the horizon line dragging this pink up to blend in with the mauve.
I mixed a little Cadmium Yellow with Cadmium Orange and white. Starting at the horizon line, I carefully blended that up into the pink – but not as far as the mauve this time (otherwise I would get a grey).
The horizon colour for the land was the same mauve mix as the sky, but with a little more Magenta and some Hookers Green to kill off the Magenta. Starting on the horizon line, I brought it down the canvas to meet the tree line.
To get the dust line, I simply smeared a line of Cadmium Orange on the horizon line itself; then using a dry brush (from side to side in broad stokes) I blended the dust line into the sky and land at the same time.
IMAGE THREE
With a 12mm wide flat brush, I mixed the background dark: Magenta, Cerulean Blue and Hookers Green – with a bias towards the Magenta to get a nice chocolatey’ brown. Using a ‘cross-hatching’ brush stroke, I pushed the paint around to create the silhouettes of the trees and rocks. Whilst the paint was still wet, I got the corner of a damp rag and wiped away areas randomly – exposing the underpainting – thus creating the basis of rocks surrounding the campsite. This gave the rocks the appearance of reflecting some of the fire light.
IMAGE FOUR
Here I added a touch of Cadmium Orange and a smear of white to the background mix to get a highlight colour, which I used in defining the tops of the bushes in the background and the reflected light from the sky. Then I took some more of the background colour and added Cerulean Blue and a little Hookers Green, making this a blue bias, and then blocked in the logs on the fire and the carbon encrusted Billy.
IMAGE FIVE
By adding a little white to the blue bias dark which I made for the logs, I was able to get a great colour for the first coat of the ash on the burning logs … so I roughly placed this around, using a 12mm flat brush again.
IMAGE SIX
I mixed a little Magenta into some Cadmium Red, and placed this at the extreme edge of where I wanted the fire to penetrate. Just abstractly, I put this mix here and there where I wanted a little coolness to the fire. Then with some pure Cadmium Red, I filled in the gaps around the blobs of cool red – until there was no background colour in the fire zone.
IMAGE SEVEN
With some of the cool red mix, I put some reflections in the Billy. With some Cadmium Orange added to Cadmium Red, I picked out some ‘hot spots’ in the fire and built on these … also creating some flames with this ‘firey’orange. I added a little white into the ash mix and highlighted some of the ash onto the darker ash mix, making sure to leave some of the darker colour showing through (and alongside) the lighter ash.
IMAGE EIGHT
I mixed some Cadmium Yellow into the Cadmium Orange and coloured in the base of the flames, making sure to keep some of the previous colour showing next to the new brighter colour; and following the same principal I added this brighter colour to the ‘hot spots’ in the fire zone. Then with some Magenta and white, making a pale pink, I had a look at where the edges of the coals were in the fire zone, and outlined these with the pale pink – forming small pockets of ‘hot’ coals. I kept refining this until it looked realistic. It can be surprising how this starts to come alive … just balance the lights and the darks in the fire and the reflected light this will give off, touching just about everything in the vicinity.
IMAGE NINE
I blocked in the Billy lid with some darker mauve than the sky colour, added some more white to the lightest ash mix, and gave that part a tweek (to brighten it up). I put some Cadmium Red with that new ash mix and had a look at where the fire would reflect onto the ash on the logs, and just gave them a quick flick of that pinky grey.
Using the blue bias dark mix, I blocked in the Billy lid handle. With the same mauve as the Billy lid, I gently gave all the exposed rocks and some of the closer bushes a lick over the top edge (using a small rigger brush) to reflect the sky again.
IMAGE TEN
I finished off the Billy lid by putting in the reflections from the fire on one side and the reflections from the sky on the other side (using a weaker mauve than the sky). I painted in the Billy handle using the blue bias dark, with the fire reflecting on one side and the sky on the other, then did the same with the connection to the side of the Billy.
IMAGE ELEVEN
The Finale. I just generally tweeked the fire a bit more; added some coals at the side and front; and put in a few wafts of smoke.
I sometimes like to have fun with some sparks, which are quite easy to do. Small tadpoles of Cadmium Red, then just add a ‘decreasing in size’ tadpole in brighter and brighter oranges, then yellows, until the last dot is Cadmium Yellow and White. Voila! A spark.
IMAGE TWELVE
My humble workspace.
IMAGE THIRTEEN
The Palette (with an added colour, Raw Umber, which I don’t ordinarily use – but it was used unmixed in a previous painting to match a frame colour).
