I did a concept painting several years ago called ‘Sigmund And The Red Tree.’ My friend Pablo Smith and I wrote a short film about Sigmund. Pablo even did an animation test or two. It ended up not happening for whatever reason, but I bring this up now to demonstrate how a painting can ALMOST tell a story, but not really…
Sigmund sits there under his tree and… …thinks? It looks posed. Now that was sort of the point when I was trying to establish the mood of the painting, which was sort of a rip-off of Morgan Freeman’s ‘treasure hunt’ scene at the end of The Shawshank Redemption. (It is, of course, debatable as to whether or not this mood was actually achieved.)
But even as still and quiet and warm as that scene from Shawshank is, there are all kinds of thought-provoking layers to it… Morgan looking for the tree; Morgan finding the black rock; the suspense building; Morgan digging for the treasure; Morgan finding the curious box; Morgan’s reaction to the treasure; Morgan looking around to see if anyone is watching… There is SO MUCH story, so much acting going on. Even as he is still, he is acting. There is a story being told.
Granted, a story this rich is difficult to convey in a single image; a single painting. However, it doesn’t make me any less interested in attempting to do so. The old masters did it. Check out Las Meninas by Velasquez among many others.
Even if I do just a simple character study with no background, I want that to reflect some sort of non-diegetic occurrence to which the character is reacting or, at the very least, reveal how the character would act if it was moving around. I want to see a motivation or an insight into who the character is. Are they honest or dishonest? Anxious or brave or afraid and why?
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