Flickering Flames

Very nice Dave!

Thanks Tom, cheers

Fire it in as Bill might say! Cool painting!😎

Thanks Brian, much appreciated. BTW, the flames are meant to be 'hot'! 8-)

Were you intending to make certain images within the flames? I see a certain thing in the top right flame and am wondering if it is intentional. If so, that's amazing. If not, bo do I have an imagination.

Nice 1!

This is great Dave! Not easy to replicate flames and you totally nailed it! Well done!

I really like the mood of this one. Would it be alright for us to see the photo you were working from? If you felt like adding a photo, that is. Great work as always!

Thank you for your lovely compliments Tomi, Cos, Nancy and Jeff. I just added the original photo - no worries. I started with a canvass I black gessoed and left that as the uniform background. This is just a simple campfire to practice technique. With flames, the photo only captures a moment in time, so I didn't stick to trying slavishly replicate the exact flames. With the gessoed background any accidents had to become another flame - so a bit more room to move. So I was just trying to replicate the overall picture and mood of the flickering flames of a dying campfire late at night. The shape and intensity of the flames are constantly and randomly changing, triggering the imagination to see different images. I haven't tried to add any particular images and your imagination can work to its hearts content. So enjoy your imagination when looking at campfires. You are free to use the photo if you want to try painting it. Bob's Bright Red is on the orange side of red and a bit cool, so I had to go to Spectrum Deep Red (Art Spectrum - Artist Oil Colour) to get that fire engine red and perception of heat in the flames. That colour really highlighted the Lemon Yellow. I also used Liquin Fine Detail in the final layers to give the flames a bit more gloss. Next time, I'll try a more glossy medium in the earlier stages of the painting as well, but will need to allow more drying time for those layers to obey the Fat-Lean rule. Cheers

Cool

Thank you for your compliment Ethel, greatly appreciated. No doubt you saw my response to Brian! 8-) Cheers

Dave it is great! my only comment would be the upper edges they look a bit rigid. i would suggest to use your fingers to smudge the tops and make smooth transition into dark. some transparent red i think will do the work.

what a beautiful photo, thank you for uploading. After looking at the photo, and imagining attempting this myself, I am starting to understand the colossal challenge it would become. Sunny's comments speak to this. The chaotic combination of hard edges and edges that blend softly to nothing seems to be what creates the effective illusion. My head is spinning just imagining taking this on. You did well in meeting the challenge head on!

I have the marshmallows. Get the sticks ready, I'm on my way.

Thank you Sunnylady for your great and very helpful comments and suggestions that I'm sure will work and that I'll incorporate into my next attempt. I appreciate them very much. I'm sure both will contribute to the softer edges I was looking for. Ta, cheers

Thank you Jeff for your great compliments and especially for putting into highly accurate wording, the effect I was trying to achieve. It is very helpful in trying to analyse what I need to do, along with implementing Sunnylady's suggestions, to create the various edges of the fire in trying to give it the illusion of rapid movement of real flickering flames. Much appreciated. Many thanks for that. Ta, cheers.

Tony, I look forward to having the fire ready at the right stage for you when you arrive with the marshmallows. Don't open the packet yet though. Cheers