painting: "Here Comes the War"

[helenic]

This is a painting I did as a gift for romauld last summer, based on his werewolf character of the same name (C also very kindly modelled for it). I've only just got round to getting it framed. My digital camera doesn't have great focus, so it was struggling to capture all of the detail, the texture and the colours. The lighter areas are somewhat lighter in real life, and the blue/red colour contrast is more pronounced, but these shots give a fair impression of it.

Romauld: Here Comes the War, Oil on Canvas, 20" x 16" (August 2004)




(taken with flash, showing the hues better, but lacking intensity)


(taken without flash, to get a better impression of the brushwork and light/dark contrast)

Comments

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Wow, Helen, that's amazingly good!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

really? thankyou! I've been a lot happier with it since I framed it and finally gave it to him properly last night (it had been passing back and forth between us for a while prior to that). When I finished it last August I couldn't stand it, but I suppose that's entirely normal. Mainly I'm just relieved to have finally finished something :)

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed at how true to life it is, based on the photos of C that I've seen.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

And I say again - it is amazing and you are wonderful. :)

[adamw]

Rather good that :-)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I hope you manage to de-flop soon. food will probably help. has being alone caused the sudden crash, or were you feeling terrible before?

*more hugs*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

glad you like it!

[deborah_c]

That's wonderful! I only wish I'd seen the actual picture while it was in Cambridge.

I'm constantly amazed at the spectactular talents of all my friends...

[chocolatebird.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful!

[beeswing.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely stunning, Helen. You're a marvelous artist, and romauld is very lucky to have such a painting.

[beeswing.livejournal.com]

Meaning, I think, that I spend too much time in the National Portrait Gallery whenever I can. And think that to have a good portrait of oneself is a rare and wonderful thing.

[verte.livejournal.com]

Good frame! And wow, it's lovely. I hope C likes it as much as we all do. Why did he want a rping character done, and not a self-portrait, out of interest?

[theobscureone.livejournal.com]

That's amazing. Well done.

[taimatsu]

Oh, gosh, that's amazing! You're so talented :)

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Coo, that's really rather good.
Both a very good likeness and yet also suitably atmospheric for its theme :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

He didn't - that was entirely my idea. Mainly because at the time I was starting it last summer, I didn't really know him well enough to commit to doing a portrait of him. I wasn't sure that the aspects of his personality I'd put into it would be real ones, or the most important ones, when I looked back on it. I didn't want to be responsible for the version of him I put into it when I knew my perspective was so ... short-term.

Also, just as a matter of trivia, it's not an rpg character - it's the character he was cast as in the film that never got off the ground, the one he wrote the screenplay for.

anyway. < /geek > glad you like the finished version too :)

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

bloody hell - that's utterly fantastic!!!
*deadimpressed*!!!!!!
go you!!
xxxxxxxxxxxx

[libellum.livejournal.com]

The thing I draw most at any one time is the person I'm currently involved with. I have sketchbooks full of exes... so when I decided last summer that right, painting it going to stop being something I used to do and start being something I do, it was a natural choice. Also the fact that it was a present meant I didn't have to stress about finding someone to buy it ;)

anyway. thankyou very much for the compliments, it's really good to have your approval :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

thank you!

[atreic.livejournal.com]

That's incredable

And everything always looks better when you come back to it, because your last memory is always "grr, I couldn't fix that" and your first look six months later will be "wow, I did all that!"

[libellum.livejournal.com]

ah, you'll have to come to Finchley sometime :) To be honest it was in London for most of last autumn, then I took it with me to Leicester to get it framed for cheap, yo. And it's been wrapped up since I moved in, so no-one else has seen it either ;)

I'm constantly amazed at the spectactular talents of all my friends...

God, I know ... I confess that wanting to feel like I deserved to be part of this group of incredible writers and actors and musicians was one of the things motivating me to finally post some of my recent art :) But I probably shouldn't admit to that...

[libellum.livejournal.com]

thank you :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

eee! thankyou! *loves the icon*

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous

*wants to see more of your art*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

erm... wow, thankyou! gosh, compliments from you are quite overwhelming :)

atmospherically it's far far too much of teh GOTH, but that was, um, ironic. or something. I mean, when you get right down to it, it is of a werewolf.