Bio of a Wood-Burning: "Portland Waterfront, 1901," Final Sessions

I had been optimistic that I could wrap this piece with just one more (protracted) work session. As it happened, it took two. While I expect it to be a norm for many artists, I know that (for me), the closer I get to the conclusion of a piece in which I've invested so many hours, the more anxious I am to see it finally come to closure, to see it real and complete.

With as many hours that have been spent burning the smaller details, we have been working around a large area of the surface space. Comparatively speaking, much of this space (the broad swath of cobblestoned Commercial Street) comes together more quickly than the more intensive areas that surround it. The drawback to this is that it can be a very tedious process: cobblestone after cobblestone, after cobblestone... To combat what is often the more boring hours of this process, I generally burn "sections" of the street, then turn my attentions elsewhere, returning to the cobblestones later in the session or the next day.

The cobblestones detailed here are very typical of the stones making up the foreground. The deeper we go in this image (i.e. the farther away it appears from the observer), I tend to soften and blend the details, lending itself to achieving the illusion of perceptual distance.



As I mentioned in my last post, one of the greatest charms of working such a highly-detailed piece as this is that it grants a lot of freedom to allow your imagination to play. When I am burning this particular theme, the foreground figures aren't even usually conceived until well after work has begun. I figure they'll announce themselves the closer I get to that area of the surface. This sailor with his seabag, for example, only occurred to me minutes before I began sketching him--with the burner.


While I try to keep figures like these unique to each piece (which is why, as often as I've burned this Portland Waterfront scene, they are always one-of-a-kind), this fish-monger has made repeated appearances. The last time I burned this theme, she was much farther down the street, pushing that barrow of fish. This time around, it seemed only just two allow her a moment to wipe her brow...


With this Portland Waterfront scene, my last session is always dedicated to laying in all the ship rigging and powerlines, then reviewing, inch by inch, the entire burn. Touch-up lines and shades are laid in and the rougher edges between some of the figures and their background as resolved.



In reaching the fruition towards which we've worked all week, I often find, coupled with the charge of anticipated conclusion, the slightest strain of sadness. This exercise is almost over, and with it the excitement that is particular to every individual piece. The initial vision for the piece has only been a framework to let our imaginations repeatedly play. There have been moments, sown into those long hours, that it has felt as if we've been riding the very spark of creation...