Fire in the Woodland

[DelN]

I wanted to create a mist-laden forest using a colour palette that I created, but as usual, it evolved. I think I used one of the fog overlays by Paper Farms but I can't remember which one. I created the artwork in Affinity Photo. The 'fire' effect is just a few abstract brush strokes which I turned to 'Screen' in the Layers panel as on 'Normal' they don't look any good. I have added the Affinity Photo file of the 'Fire' effect brush stroke, also a .jpg of what the fire looks like on black background, and a .png with transparent background. The Affinity Photo file has the four individual brush strokes that I used in my artwork. 

I attach the 'Spooky Brown Wood' colour palette I created plus a screengrab of the colours in the palette in case anyone wants to use it.

Spooky Brown Wood.afpalette Fire.afphoto

[William Overington]

Your picture reminded me of a painting that I saw in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in the 1970s.

https://www.ashmolean.org/forest-fire

Back then it was called Fire in the forest.

William

 

 

 

[DelN]

Wow! Thanks William,

I had a look at the painting you mentioned. It's beautiful. I've never heard of Piero di Cosimo. Apparently, he painted it in 1505, oil on panel. Truly a master... 🙂

[William Overington]

It is quite an interesting story of how I came to see that painting. I had not known of the painting before I saw it.

I had seen in The National Gallery in London the painting The Rout of San Romano by Paolo Uccello and I was impressed by it.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/uccellos-rout-san-romano

Most of the above is behind a pay wall (I have not viewed it) but the free to read part has interesting information so i have included the link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_San_Romano

I had subsequently bought a book about Renaissance Art and I had read that that painting was one of a set of three (the others in the Louvre in Paris and in the Uffizi in Florence) and that there was another painting by Paolo Uccello in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

I had not known of that museum before reading that, but I found out about it and I drove to Oxford one Saturday afternoon to try to see the painting. It was on display in a large room on the first floor (UK parlance, that is one floor up from the entry level of the building) and in the same room Fire in the Forest was also on display.

As a side note, while in Oxford on that Saturday afternoon I saw the Museum of the History of Science, but it was shut as it only opened for periods on weekdays.

So some time later, when I had a week of holiday, I drove to Oxford on a weekday and I visited the Museum of the History of Science.

There I saw a display of astrolabes and that is how I became interested in astrolabes.

https://hsm.ox.ac.uk/

I visited the museum several times over the next few years. There was no booking then, no tickets, an open door and very often nobody other than one or two staff in view.

William

 

 

[DelN]

I love Renaissance art and adore Italy, especially Venice (my favourite place) and Florence. I am fascinated by the Medici and the Borgias, Savonarola and the 'Bonfire of the Vanities' (not the To Wolfe book) and especially the Byzantine empire and the siege in 1543 of Constantinople by the Ottomans.

Indeed, some of my Affinity Photo brushes that I created to use in my artwork - the silver and gold brushes, pearl brushes, jewel brushes like ruby, emerald, diamond, sapphire, lapis, are all inspired by the wealth of Renaissance Italy and the Byzantine empire.

[William Overington]

Have you seen the POPtravel videos of Venice?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=POPtravel+Venice

For example, this one, viewing it on full screen view is good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrvaZusWypI

POPtravel videos tend to be continuous, no sudden jumps of viewpoint.

POPtravel videos are not only of Venice, there are lots of them.

https://www.youtube.com/c/poptravelorg

William

 

[DelN]

Thanks, William. I'll check them out... 🙂

[DelN]

Thanks...

 

[John Rostron]

Re: your original 'Fire in the Wood'  paintings, I am intrigued that the deer and the birds seem to be fleeing from the fire in opposite directions! Artistic licence?

I find that the painting from the Ashmolean does not connect  in any way for me with your painting.

John

[DelN]

Ha-ha! Well spotted! While I was putting it together I did wonder whether, if the fire is raging rapidly through the woodland in all directions, leaping from tree to tree and setting alight to the undergrowth, do the animals, in their terror, follow the same route to safety as the birds or do they tear through the woodland in a blind panic, avoiding the fire and smoke as they come across it...

And I agree with you: I don't see any similarity between Piero di Cosimo's wonderful painting in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and my own, but it was a great compliment to receive from William.

But did you notice that one of the deer and wild boars in Piero di Cosimo's painting have men's heads?

[John Rostron]

8 hours ago, DelN said:

But did you notice that one of the deer and wild boars in Piero di Cosimo's painting have men's heads?

No, I didn't!

John

[William Overington]

10 hours ago, DelN said:

Ha-ha! Well spotted! While I was putting it together I did wonder whether, if the fire is raging rapidly through the woodland in all directions, leaping from tree to tree and setting alight to the undergrowth, do the animals, in their terror, follow the same route to safety as the birds or do they tear through the woodland in a blind panic, avoiding the fire and smoke as they come across it...

Actually, the birds going one way and the deer the other, for me, capture in the image the panic. Unlike people in a workplace they will not have been taught what to do in a fire situation nor will they have participated in a fire drill and been informed of the gathering point after evacuation and there will not be signs on the trees indicating which way to go in the event of a fire. And although when staff in a human workpace all behave in an orderly manner in a previously announced fire drill, who knows what will happen if there is a real fire.

The animals may not know which is the route to safety. They may not be aware that there is anywhere outside the wood, or they may have previously stood at the edge of the wood gazing at the open meadow beyond yet never ventured there.

William

 

 

[carl123]

32 minutes ago, William Overington said:

Actually, the birds going one way and the deer the other, for me, capture in the image the panic

Actually, they are two different creatures.

For birds the air is their domain and they have probably seen a clear route upwards, over/through the land to the right

For the deer, he has to find a ground route out of the danger zone and he's determined that is to be to the left. There's no way he can follow the birds' route out, unless his name is Rudolph and he has a big red nose.

[DelN]

I think you may have the formula for a winning children's book there, William. You could do the illustrations in Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. Maybe two books; a fire in the woodlands, and secondly, a fire in the office. Who will survive? I see a board game too (maybe to rival Monopoly?) Something tells me that the 'fire in the office' book might not sell as well as the 'fire in the woodlands' book... 😄

[DelN]

Good point, carl123...

Maybe I should do a Christmas version and add Rudolph's nose glowing like a beacon that all non-flight woodland creatures can follow to safety. And maybe in Williams 'fire in the office' book, he can have Santa Claus leading the office workers to safety. All except the ones that 'don't believe' in Santa. They'll probably scurry around in the office and die of smoke inhalation. Never mind.

Although, I imagine both fires will have died out by Christmas... 😄

William's children's books might be out by Christmas too, eh?

[William Overington]

My first novel is available to read on the web. Free-to-read, no registration required or requested.

Here is the link to the version that includes the author notes.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/novel_plus.htm

I produced the novel using the Serif PagePlus desktop publishing program.

The novel is quite a lot to read.

If you want to have a look at one chapter, you might like this one.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/localizable_sentences_the_novel_chapter_021.pdf

William

 

[William Overington]

29 minutes ago, DelN said:

You could do the illustrations in Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.

Well I am not very good at illustrations. I like to think that I am quite good at writing but when it comes to illustrations I can do designs that can be constructed mathematically or almost mathematically but something like the image that you have produced is way beyond my abilities

William

 

 

[DelN]

Hi William,

Wow! I've been to the link to investigate. I read the piece (ch21) on the second link you sent (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/localizable_sentences_the_novel_chapter_021.pdf) and the poem, which flowed beautifully, and I have read the author's note. It was really very interesting, but so surreal. I'm not sure I understand from reading that little snippet what it's about so I will have another look later... I love that you are enjoying writing it and designing the graphics. Writing, art and design should be enjoyable. 

I think you are living in another dimension. It is such an original idea. 🙂 It will take me a while to understand it, I think...

 

[William Overington]

I wrote that novel at times from June 2016 to February 2019, posting chapters as I wrote them.

It was intended to be free-standing, but I missed wrting it, so I started a sequel, which is about two-thirds complete at present.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/locse_novel2.htm

William