1 - Posted on 9/18/2021

That gleaming white on the blade is so pure capturing that never ending northern arctic daylight.  The rest of the painting is brilliantly within the reflective glow of burnt amber.  

1 - Posted on 9/18/2021

Yeah that riddish orange glow color really is striking in this one. I need to add a photo of the piece it is a bit darker than this scan and really pops the blade. 

1 - Posted on 9/18/2021

Really lovely color work on this and that blade pops so much! Huge congrats!

1 - Posted on 9/18/2021

yeah it is all about the blade! He made it like a water color and the blade is the white of the paper.

1 - Posted on 9/18/2021

Great cover congrats!

Posted on 9/18/2021

Love the color. Massimo is so great. I am struggling to remember how color theory could explain why this piece works so well. Any thoughts?

2 - Posted on 9/18/2021

Yeah this painting is all about the light and values, and Massimo is a master at it and I wanted and feel I got a good example of that here. As for color theory, absolutely! It is the warm /cool compliments. maybe not these exact colors but basically Ultramarine blue and Burt Sienna. The push and pull of warm pull forward and cool to drop back. It works every time and if the color choice is correct they usually gray one another out so you can also play with chroma for hot intese color spots and neutral more muted spots in shadows etc. David Grove did a lot of paintings this way look him up he was a fantastic at it. 

Posted on 9/18/2021

I thought you would probably have the answer! Thanks for the thoughtful analysis. It makes me appreciate this cover even more. Sorry one more question. What does playing with chroma mean?

Posted on 9/18/2021

Your welcome. Yeah I can talk about this stuff all day- I have my art nerd badge and proud of it. Chroma = purity or intensity of color. So basically playing with the saturation. It is another trick people use to draw the eye. For example the reddish orage around the face you are drawn there by the color most likely straight from the tube. If you cover up the bight white of the knife ( to remove the lightest value) that is where your eye is going to go. 

1 - Posted on 9/20/2021

Northlanders is one of my all-time favorite comics and Massimo's covers for each and every issue was one of the reason's why. Her face here tells you all you need to know about her intentions and makes you want to crack open the cover to find out what happens. Congrats on this beauty.

1 - Posted on 9/20/2021

He totally made her a bad ass! It is cool to see how rejected the first version but kept the intensity of the face. But it is all about that blade. Love his covers was glad to finally add a really nice example to my collection.