Redeemed again

Sometimes you get a commission out of left field, Shawshank Redemption was one of these. I'd forgotten just how much love I have for the movie, and indeed the book. It's based on a Stephen King novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, found in the "Different Seasons" collection. I read this when it came out back in the day. I think I had to wait until my mother had read it first, but it accompanied me on a family holiday to Malta. So I had the grim existence of Andy Dufresne and Red, as a stark contrast to the bright sunshine of a Mediterranean holiday.

The movie, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, is a stone-cold classic and could stir emotions in the stoniest of hearts. So when John came to me with the commission, I knew exactly which scene to paint, the emergence of Dufresne into the cleansing rainstorm after his crawl through a mile of shit! King was always great with a visual metaphor.

The first thing I wanted to do was to have Dufresne break the frame of the picture, so he was emerging from the mire into the light, so his hands go beyond the background. Then I thought I'd panel the background to make it look like prison bars.

To achieve these sharp lines I used masking tape, and to avoid the colour bleeding underneath the tape I painted over the tape with white, to seal the edge.

I'm starting to add detail to Dufresne. I wanted to make the palette all the same, so no additional colours bled through. I used pthalo blue and ultramarine, with white, black and some crimson to keep the dark blues vibrant instead of a drab blue grey.

Finally, we have the finished painting, plus a rain effect in the background and over the subject.

I was happy, so I did a little dance, you'll have to imagine my feet kicking up a storm out of camera shot.

Hope you enjoyed this

Love and Glue

Symon X