The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

The Portrait

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

"Here everything but the inside of the large letter has been masked off with paper to protect it and the background has been painted in. No masking was used -- the painting was just done around everything in the foreground. This is a typical California winter landscape -- the dark and nearly featureless nimbus clouds of a cold front, and a fog bank of advection fog driven by the winds off the Pacific ocean to lap around and over the coastal hills. The cloudy sky was painted first, using a mixture of Prussian Blue and Ultramarine Blue, dulled with the addition of some Orange Lake Light and then lightened with Permanent White. The darker areas had more Prussian Blue, the lighter ones had more white. The color was laid on very wet, the dark areas first, using a #2 bright brush. The brush was rinsed and the lighter areas painted in, not quite touching the darker places. The brush was rinsed again and then the lighter areas of paint were coaxed out into the darker areas, using a technique called "feathering" where the brush is moved in a light stroke over the boundary between the two colors to mix and blend them on the working surface. The sky was painted down to the line marking the fog bank. After the sky had dried, the fog was painted with a very light mixture of the same blue used for the clouds, the blue "grayed" in tone (made less intense) by the addition of more orange. The middle of each "feeler" of fog lapping over the hillside was painted in, then left to dry. The color used for the fog was left in the palette as it would be needed later.

"The hills went quickly as they are much the same as those in Juan Santiago's scroll. Each hill in the background is darker and duller in color than the one before it; the last hill is also slightly "blued" by distance, which called for the addition of Phalo Blue to the mix. The hillside was painted around the fingers of fog, just slightly inside of the very light pencil lines. Then I went back to the very light paint used on the fog bank (leftover gouache reactivates very well, just add a bit of water and wait for it to soften up again) and went over the fog "feelers," painting just up to the edges of the damp paint on the hill. The brush had a very small amount of the light color on it, and again it was scumbled into the darker paint to achieve a translucent look at the edges of the fog. More of the light color was dry-brushed off the edge of the fog bank to make the tattered streamers of fog and contribute to the movement of the fog as it comes in off the ocean.

"For just an added bit of detail and to add visual interest, some slightly darker green lines were painted onto the hillsides. Open California hillsides are generally used for cattle grazing, and the cows tramp narrow little paths into the sides of the hills, making little terraces that follow the contours. This is a little more noticeable in the next photo." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

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