(Two Of) The Hateful Eight

I thought it was about time I went back to my most popular series of paintings, the abstractified Westerns.  Today, I found a still from The Hateful Eight with two silhouetted figures standing inside a barn while it was all snow and fog outside, a scene that was just made for me to paint.

Before I get on to the painting, yes, I know that pitiful excuse for a human being Harvey Weinstein was producer for this film.  But he’s only the producer.  It’s the director, cast and all sorts of other people that make a film great – the producer just sits in the background looking after finances and (in this case) abusing his power.  Anyway, back to talking about the painting.

This painting is in the key of purple cool, with the three main primaries being transparent yellow, French ultramarine and quinacridone magenta.  This is definitely not a three colour painting though.

I started by masking out the figures and the door frame.  Then I painted in the house, coach and fence in sepia.  Sepia is a stainer and I used it so that it would be resilient to the foggy glaze that went over the top.  Then I added some snow using French ultramarine and burnt sienna.  These two colours make a great combination and granulated unbelievably well.  Then there was the foreground along the bottom. I started  with some raw sienna with some burnt sienna and burnt umber dropped in.  It wasn’t great so I also dropped in my three primaries.  What I’ve ended up with is a fairly neutral colour without as much variety to it as I was looking for, although you can still spot the odd bit of blue.

Next was the foggy glaze.  It’s made up of titanium white, cobalt blue and tiny bits of French ultramarine and quinacridone magenta. I painted this all over, being really careful with the snowy banks where I hadn’t used strainers (dumb error).  Just as the sheen from that glaze was disappearing, I sprinkled on some salt, whose effect can be seen but it’s a pity so much of it can be seen on the ground and so little in the sky.

And then it’s the fun bit where I get to use my three primaries.  First, all the existing masking fluid came off, then I spattered in more masking fluid, trying to get most of it in the figures and the door frame.  Along the top of the doorframe you can see where I’ve done some directional, left to right spattering.  Once that had dried, I started on the doorframe.  After checking that my three primaries would mix together to make a good neutral, I started painting the doorframe in neutral colours.  But once every inch or two I would change the neutral tone by adding in more red, yellow or blue.  The right hand door frame could still be described as neutral but when I got to to the other two sides, I was being more adventurous with the colour variation, which seems to have come out well.  I dropped in a couple of bits of water to try to encourage some cauliflowers – the best ones are in the bottom left and top right.  I also went around the edge of the doorframe with a bit of raw sienna, allowing it to mix with the colours already there.

The onto the figures.  In both cases, I painted around the outside first in neutral tone, then dropped in blues, reds, yellows and neutral tones to fill the figures up.  I encouraged colours to mix and tried to make the left sides more yellow and the right sides more blue, to get some sort of 3D effect.  They seemed to come out OK.  And then there was possibly my favourite bit which is to rub off all the masking fluid spattering (and, less excitingly any salt).  It’s amazing seeing all these white spots appearing from nowhere.  Are they stars?  Snow?  Bullet holes?  Woodworm?  I don’t know and I don’t care – let the viewer decide.

This one is another big success.  It’s heavily influenced by The Searchers and Tombstone, both of which sold, so I’m hoping it will be equally popular.  I like the natural framing of the picture (which is down to Quentin Tarantino) but I also like the bit I’ve added, which is the contrast between body heat inside the figures and the cold outside, which makes it all look even colder out there.

This one’s up for sale.