The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Layout and Design of Artwork

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

"The layout was now complete but something about it just wasn't right. The seated figure was very bottom heavy -- the weight of the gown and the many folds kept bringing the eye downwards, especially with the added visual interest of the scales in Rose's left hand. It needed something to bring the eye back up to the top of the figure. Aldith said that a line of shell gold around the neck would add more interest but this just didn't seem to be enough. We kept discussing it, until one day at lunch in a pizza parlor she brought up the idea of doing something with the background rather than the figure to pull the eye back upwards into the middle of the composition, maybe something with the lighting behind the figure. This was rejected as figures which have backlighted heads start looking like they're wearing halos unless this effect is done very carefully -- which sparked the idea of using the lines formed by the hills and clouds. Out came my pen and a sketch was done on a paper napkin - viola! Still ... the horizon line were getting pretty high up, wrecking the balance between land and sky. Actually, one didn't need the entire hill -- just a good line up around the head of the figure. Often in California, the fog will creep over the valleys and spill over the hills through low spots, or long rolls of low cloud will lie between hills, obscuring part of the hill beyond. This effect would cover up a lot of that added hillside, restoring the balance between earth and sky. This resolved the issue and made me a lot happier -- a problem with composition is rarely made better by the application of paint unless it's planned that way (as in, busy area over here balanced by large dark blob of color over there)." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).