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I recently started updating a Livestream several times a week and worked on Metropolis this week, tracking my progress. You can watch the full video here or just click below to go to the main site.
Click for full view.
Here is a detail pic of some of what we did today. I brought out a lot of the detail in the coat and some in the table as well as behind Rotwang.
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You know when a song has been floating in your head for a while? This is one of those songs for me. Part of Naughtypants journey from being a totally self-absorbed person to a decent human being is getting lost outside the castle, in the rain. While not a big obstacle for someone like you or me, for her, it’s braving the elements. This song is bound to change a lot between now and the final version, but for now, I’m satisfied with it. A downloadable .midi file is after the sheet music.
Here is that .midi file. Enjoy.
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Finale Notepad is a wonderful little program. It lets you write out the sheet music in a very visual way, while checking the sound of your piece with an instant .midi playback.
I don’t have an amazing studio full of the latest and greatest technology, but I have Finale Notepad. So here I am, saying thanks, and sharing with you some of the music I’ve been working on. Each of the files below are a free .midi download that can be played on any player that can read such files.
Enjoy! I’d love some feedback.
A “Greensleeves,”-inspired melody to be played at high and slow speeds depending on the mood of the scene.
I have no musical training. This is a link to a clean midi file of the musical notation above.
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After sitting on this canvas for the better part of a year, I finally decided to tackle it with ferocity and determination. We now finish the sweep of the cooler colors around the left side, and push back the far wall by leaving it as the background wash color. I’ve also outlined the dials on the back wall and started roughing in the table.
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The painting stopped here for a long time because I got intimidated by the size. I let myself feel that way and started doing the Pop Portraits as practice, originally, so I didn’t ruin the big canvas. I painted my Pop Portraits, I got over it, I went back to the big canvas.
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I was painting Metropolis up on the easel for a while, but started laying it down as I was working with more and more water in my acrylics. This is a photo of my studio layout at the time with some of the progress visible. Below is a closer view of that progress. You can start to see the reflected light from the disco lightning ball in the center of the picture, some of the wall, and the outlines coming together. Still a far way to go.
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The first thing I painted was Metropolis, itself through the window. This is the furthest thing from the viewer so I didn’t want to have to go back in and paint it in behind anyone if I could avoid it. You can see the edges of my underpainting wash swirling around the center as well. I wasn’t very good at taking progress photos at this point.
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This is a series of photos of my tracing paper roughs from my sketches. The photos aren’t the best in the world, but they do give you the idea of the overall shapes of the painting. It is a high key painting, meaning that tonally the it is very light. This is due to the lightning, rings, and other flashing lights in the laboratory, making the shadows that are dark pop out of frame, giving the piece depth. My plan to to dull the colors as they recede into the distance to hint at atmospheric interference from the electricity. Below are some details from the roughs.
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Metropolis is a film directed by Fritz Lang that was released worldwide in 1927, before the advent of sound in film. It’s a masterpiece and worthy of your attention. The film has been almost completely restored over the years with some versions accompanied by the original musical scores that were sent along with the picture to be played by a live orchestra during the performance. Below is a small gallery of some of the reference photos I have been using for this painting.
A reference photo for Rotwang
