Restoring Charred Buildings: Painting After A Fire

Painting a building that was on fire can be a challenging task, especially if you want to capture the intricate details of fire damage. The process involves carefully observing and replicating the unique effects of fire on the structure, including charred surfaces, smoke stains, and potential structural damage. To achieve a realistic portrayal, artists may employ specific techniques and colour palettes to depict the intense heat, glowing embers, and erratic movement of fire. This introduction aims to provide a glimpse into the complex art of painting a building ravaged by fire, offering insights into the creative process and the challenges artists face in capturing the destructive beauty of flames.

Painting smoke and its illusionary effect

Painting smoke and capturing its illusionary effect can be a challenging task. Here are some tips and techniques to help you create realistic smoke effects in your artwork:

Understanding Smoke as a Medium

Smoke is a unique artistic medium that is not drawn, painted, or sprayed on but is airborne. It can create a range of beautiful blacks with depth and luminosity, as well as a wide range of tones. The delicacy and free-form nature of smoke allow for vagueness and serendipity in your creations. Any burning or lit material, such as paper, rags, or a candle, can produce smoke.

Preparing Your Workspace

Before you begin, it is important to protect your workspace. Cover your work area with a flame-retardant floor covering to catch any dripping wax. Ensure that you keep flammable items away from your workspace to minimize the risk of fire.

Choosing Your Tools

For painting with smoke, you will need a candle or another heat source, a canvas or paper (preferably heavier paper or board), fixative, matches or a lighter, and a fire extinguisher for safety.

Creating Smoke Effects

Prop up your canvas or paper and work from beneath it. Hold a lit candle underneath and vary the angle and speed of the flame to create different patterns and shapes. You can also vary the candle width and wick length for different effects. For instance, longer wicks allow for more fluid patterning, while shorter wicks are good for darker applications.

Once you are satisfied with your design, blow out the candle and spray the surface with fixative to prevent smearing. Before applying the fixative, you can use different-sized erasers or your hand to create patterns in the smoke design.

Capturing the Illusion

When painting smoke, it is important to avoid overusing white. While we often associate smoke with the color white, using too much can interfere with color perception. Instead, opt for light grays and other weak tones for the smoke, and reserve pure white for only the brightest highlights.

Additionally, approach smoke as you would any other subject—break it down into basic shapes, forms, and movements. Smoke effects should appear transient and hazy, so use translucent and reflected colors to achieve this effect.

Combining Media

You can also combine smoke art, or fumage, with other media. For example, you can use smoke as a starting point and then add layers of oil paint to fully express your artistic vision.

By following these techniques and experimenting with different tools and media, you can master the art of painting smoke and its illusionary effects.

Choosing the right colours for the flames

Painting fire is challenging because of its formless nature and the fact that it generates its own light source. However, it is not as tricky as one might think. It is all about how you arrange the colours that dictate how something is perceived.

When choosing the right colours for the flames, it is important to consider the size and type of fire you want to paint. For instance, a small fire like a candle flame will have a different colour scheme and shape than a larger campfire. The colour of the candle will also affect the flame's colour—a white candle will reflect the same colours as the flame, while a black candle will be almost invisible.

For a candle flame, the base of the flame tends to burn blue, so a darker blue like indigo or Payne's grey can be used to create the necessary shadows. You can then add some yellow and red to capture the warmth of the flame. To create the illusion of sparks and embers, use yellow gouache paint or the negative painting technique.

For a larger fire like a campfire, start with blocking in the area around the fire. Then, add pure cadmium orange where you think the coals will be to capture the bright oranges at the base of the fire. This will ensure that no other colours are mixed in, maintaining its luminosity. Next, add cadmium yellow right above the orange. You can then add a bit of white to the brightest areas of yellow to create a thicker layer that covers instead of blends. Break up the flames with deep red or brown to indicate logs, blending them with the warm colours of the fire while leaving bits of pure cadmium orange for a lively feel.

Additionally, consider adding metallics like gold and copper to add shine and light reflection, making the flames more dynamic.

Using white to make the fire look more intense

Painting a building that was on fire can be a challenging task, especially given that fire is a challenging element to paint due to its formless nature and the fact that it generates its own light source. To make the fire look more intense, one can use white colour strategically.

Firstly, it is important to select the type of fire you want to paint. This could be a small fire, like a candle, or a larger fire such as a campfire. The size and type of fire will influence the colours and composition. Once you have decided on the type of fire, prepare your materials. For watercolour paintings, ensure you have good quality paper that can withstand multiple layers of paint.

Now, let's delve into the painting process. Start by blocking in the area around the fire with colours like pure Cadmium Orange, capturing the bright oranges or coals at the base of the fire. This helps maintain the luminosity of the oranges by ensuring no other colours are mixed in. Next, add colours like cadmium yellow above the orange, blending it into the surrounding area to create the illusion of flames.

Here comes the crucial part of using white to intensify the fire. After applying the yellow, mix in some white paint in the brightest areas of yellow. Use a small paintbrush or pencil with a light, almost white colour, and paint inside the fire, following its shape. This technique will make the fire appear more intense and realistic. You can also let the painting dry and then re-add some pure whites to make them stand out.

Additionally, pay attention to the details around the fire, such as rocks, boulders, and shadows. These elements can be lightened as they get closer to the fire to enhance the sense of light and heat it emits. Remember that painting fire is about capturing its movement and formlessness, so observe real fires or references to understand their fluid nature.

Painting the background to make the fire stand out

Painting a building that was on fire involves capturing the movement of flames, the light generated by the fire, and the colours and shadows created by the interplay of fire and smoke. Here are some tips for painting the background to make the fire stand out:

Choose a dark background:

A dark background adds intensity to the fire. Using a dark colour like black, indigo, Payne's grey, or a dark purple can help create a sense of depth and make the fire appear brighter in contrast. Keep the background simple at first, focusing on the fire itself, and add more details to the background as you become more comfortable with painting the flames.

Create shadows and highlights:

Layering paint in the background helps create shadows, adding depth and dimension to your painting. Objects in the background should have highlights or glowing edges that get progressively darker the further away they are from the light source of the fire. Ensure that these highlighted edges are facing the flames. Additionally, you can use a lighter blue shade to represent the hottest part of the flame, typically found at its base.

Embellish the flames:

To make the fire stand out, you can embellish the flames by adding details and making them more intricate. You can also experiment with different colours to create an abstract or funky look, such as using rainbow colours for the flames.

Add smoke:

Smoke can be created by using a warm grey colour and a round blender brush to fan out and create the illusion of smoke. Ensure that the background is dry before adding smoke to avoid pushing the paint around.

Study references:

Painting fire can be challenging due to its formless nature and the need to capture its movement and light. It is essential to study references of fire, such as photographs or videos, to understand its movement, varying shades, shadows, and shapes. Observing real fires or online videos of crackling fires can provide valuable inspiration and help you capture the essence of the flames in your painting.

Creating sparks and embers with gouache paint

Painting a building that was on fire involves capturing the brightness of the fire and its surrounding darkness. This can be achieved by using a range of colours, including the standard primary colours: yellow, red, and a darker blue like indigo or Payne's grey for shadows. The base of the flame, which is the hottest part, is often a lighter blue.

Gouache paint is a suitable medium for painting fire because of its ability to produce opaque and vibrant colours. It is also user-friendly and suitable for beginners. To create sparks and embers, use yellow gouache paint. This can be done with the negative painting technique, which involves capturing the brightness of the sparks and embers by contrasting them with a dark background.

Before beginning to paint, it is important to assemble the necessary materials, including gouache paints, brushes of various sizes and shapes, a palette, water, and watercolour paper or a mixed-media sketchbook. Protect your workspace with a waterproof covering to prevent accidental spills.

When painting with gouache, you can start with your darkest colours and apply lighter colours over the top, unlike watercolour painting, where you start with the lightest colours. Gouache paints are opaque, so the darker colours won't shine through. It is important to get to know your paints, as some colours may dry lighter or darker than expected.

To create sparks and embers, use the negative painting technique by first sketching the outlines of the sparks and embers with diluted watercolour paint or watercolour instead of pencil to maintain the formlessness of the sparks and embers. Then, apply a light wash of water over the area you plan to paint to help the gouache adhere better. Start painting the sparks and embers with yellow gouache paint, gradually adding water to achieve the desired consistency and transparency.

You can also create sparks and embers by using the negative painting technique to capture the brightness against a dark background. This involves "cutting" around the sparks and embers by layering paint in the background to create shadows.

Frequently asked questions