This document summarizes a student's project creating a production painting and animation based on a short story. The student chose Ambrose Bierce's story "The Crimson Candle" about a man who asks his wife on his deathbed to swear not to remarry by burning a magical red candle. For the painting, the student composed elements representing heaven, hell, and the candle to symbolize human greed and selfishness. Reference images helped capture realistic brush strokes and vibrant colors. The final piece composites period photographs into a scene showing the candle's subtle presence and the couple's conflicting desires.

1. ADV.
ILLUSTRATION
FOR
PRODUCTION
MAAA363
By: Kaitlyn Scott
Instructor: Duane Loose
The Art Institute of California – San Diego
Fall Quarter 2015
Week 11

2. MOBILE GAME CONCEPT
Project Brief:
The idea behind this project is that we (the students) have been asked
to update a mobile RTS game. Starting with compiling a style guide
including: screen shots of the current game and inspirational reference
images. Then creating a paint-over update of the old game.

3. STYLE GUIDE:
The game I chose is called
Auralux, a RTS indie game that
was created to bring the genre
back to its original core of
strategy.
Current Style:
Over all the look and style of this
game is very simple, minimalistic,
uncluttered and artistic. Consisting of
only the colors red, green, and blue.

4. Proposal:
Using the three types of galaxies as reference replicate the shapes in the outer
gray rings. In an arrangement that when the player’s units take over a sun
completely it looks and moves like a real galaxy. As well, add in a third enemy as
the color purple. Make it so that when the units of any color collide together the
underlying pulsating color is a blend/combination of the fighting units’ colors.
Also give the whole UI a much more sleek futuristic look, all the while staying
true to the original concept of minimalism and abstract art.
STYLE GUIDE:

5. UPDATE:

6. PRODUCTION
PAINTING
Project Brief:
We had to choose a story, that is not already a film / TV show / or game, and
create a production painting that captures the spirit of the story. Eventually giving
the final painting a small animation using Adobe After Effects.

7. THE STORY:
THE CRIMSON CANDLE
A MAN lying at the point of death called his wife to his bedside and said:
"I am about to leave you forever; give me, therefore, one last proof of your
affection and fidelity, for, according to our holy religion, a married man
seeking admittance at the gate of Heaven is required to swear that he has
never defiled himself with an unworthy woman. In my desk you will find a
crimson candle, which has been blessed by the High Priest and has a
peculiar mystical significance. Swear to me that while it is in existence you
will not remarry."
The Woman swore and the Man died. At the funeral the Woman stood at
the head of the bier, holding a lighted crimson candle till it was wasted
entirely away.
By Ambrose Bierce

8. BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
On his death bed a man asks his
wife to go grab a red candle in
his desk. Saying it has been
enchanted so that as long as it
lasts she will remain loyal to
him, if she does this he’ll go to
heaven. The wife burns the
candle through at his funeral.
This story is about the natural greed and
selfishness that rakes the human soul and
morality on a daily basis. Neither the
husband nor the wife wants to give up their
own happiness for the other. In this instance
greed is not represented by money and
riches but rather by happiness. The husband
does not want to go to hell; causing his
willingness to sacrifice his wife’s happiness
and ability to move on so that he may go to
heaven and be happy instead . On the other
hand, the wife wants to be able to
eventually move on in life and love another
so she sacrifices her husband’s pride by
burning the candle at his funeral. Both
getting what they want with little thought
to the other.
THE SPIRIT OF THE
STORY:
Time period: 1800’s
Location: USA

9. THUMBNAIL SKETCHES:

10. THUMBNAIL SKETCHES: • Through my
thumbnails I was
really able to
narrow down
that I wanted to
portray both
heaven and hell,
in a very classic
Christianic
manner using
clouds and fire.

11. THUMBNAIL SKETCHES:
Immediately when I started planning
out my thumbnails and ideas for this
painting I knew that I had to represent
the red candle, it is the main feature
point of the story after all; but I wasn’t
so sure if I wanted it to be the main
feature of the painting. The thumbnail
to the right is the one I ended up going
with largely but I did pull inspiration
from my other thumbnails.

12. REFERENCE IMAGES:Eastman Johnson

13. REFERENCE IMAGES:
• I loved how
soft the brush
strokes appear
in this painting
and how the
colors blend
and bleed into
each other; I
really wanted
to be able to
mimic the
feeling that
they bring
within my own
piece.
Eastman Johnson

14. REFERENCE IMAGES:
• The vibrancy within Church’s color pallet immediately caught my eye,
first with the clouds shaping the U.S.’s flag following down into the red
halving of the trees and then the soft pink highlighting the water, it all
contrasts so well together.
Frederic Edwin Church

15. COLOR BLOCK:
During the color block
process I focused a lot
on where I wanted all
my colors to go and
what hues and tones I
wanted. I also
determined that
although the candle is
a huge part of the
story its presence
needed to be more
subtle. Because that’s
what the candle is, the
candle is the gateway
for the greed and
selfishness of this
couple, and on a larger
scale humankind. It is
something that is
always present but
rarely seen plainly.

16. COMPOSITING
THE FINAL
IMAGE:
When I heard about this project I was immediately excited to composite in Photoshop
again, it being something that I don’t get the opportunity to do very often within my
classes and with a busy schedule. That being said, I wanted to make something that
looked one foot in and one foot out of partially being realistic and then also having a
very painted quality to it using good high resolution photos. One of my most
challenging tasks was creating two realistic humans, before this I have only composited
backgrounds. I was extremely lucky in finding two colorized photos from the civil war
era, both of which I had already had in low res. black and white photos for historical
context and body positioning references.

17. COMPOSITING
THE FINAL
IMAGE:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

18. COMPOSITING
THE FINAL
IMAGE: 11.

19. COMPOSITING
THE FINAL
IMAGE:
Compositing the husband was a lot more of a
challenge, even though I only used the one photo for
him. To alter his facial features I started with
liquefying his cropped out face and then trail and
error using different layers, brushes, filters, and
colors.
Before- After-

20. THE
FINAL
IMAGE
:

21. THE
FINAL
IMAGE
&
ANIM
ATIC:
<iframe
src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1492442
06" width="500" height="281"
frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen
mozallowfullscreen
allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a
href="https://vimeo.com/149244206">Scott_
K_Week11_Final</a> from <a
href="https://vimeo.com/user33161259">Kaitl
yn Scott</a> on <a
href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
https://vimeo.com/149244206

22. _ __ Kaitlyn Scott l Artist __ _
@aliceb.h.marigold
kaitlynscott234@gmail.com