Friday 20 March 2015

The Closing Entry of the Fifth Annual Painting Challenge - The Father and The Boy from Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'



As per tradition I make sure to open and close each year’s Challenge. This year I decided to hold back my second ‘Antihero’ and post it as the rearguard. 

It’s a vignette based on one of my favourite books, Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’. 



In McCarthy’s book an unnamed father and his young son journey across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, several years after an unexplained apocalypse has destroyed civilization and most life on Earth.  While the story is framed in this horrific setting it is, at its core, a tender love story between a father and his son.



Much of the book is written in an abbreviated third person style, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy."




Realizing that they cannot survive the oncoming winter, the father takes his boy south, along desolate roads, towards the sea, carrying their meager possessions in their knapsacks. 





They have a pistol, but only two bullets. In a chilling passage in the book, the boy is reminded that he is to use the gun on himself, if necessary, to avoid falling into the hands of other survivors, as most have turned to cannibalism. 

The father struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation. In the face of these obstacles, the man repeatedly reassures the boy that they are "the good guys" who are "carrying the fire". On their journey, the pair scrounge for food, evade roving bands, and contend with many horrors.  An old man they discover on the road acts as seer for them and says that the boy has a glow about him – inferring that he is blessed. As the story moves forward the father feels he has to do things that are insensitive if not inhumane in order to keep his son safe.  This progresses to the point where the reader is left with the impression that The Father is perhaps is no longer ‘carrying the fire’ but one can only sympathize with his situation as we ask ourselves, ‘How far would we go to keep the ones we love safe?’ 



The book is very powerful and I believe it ends the way it should (I won’t say more as I don’t want to spoil it for those who’ve not read it). If you haven’t read it I heartily recommend you do so.




The figures of The Father and The Boy are from Lead Adventure and are modeled closely to the actors in the movie. I did them in greyscale with only The Boy’s face being in colour, ‘carrying the fire’. I created to the base to depict one of the many roads they traveled on. The centerline is broken to foreshadow what happens in their journey.




Well folks, it’s a wrap. It’s been a tremendous amount of fun.  Every time I think that this one’s going to be my last Challenge I read a note from a participant who’s had a particularly good time and it refreshes my batteries, making me raring to give it another go.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be awarding a bunch of prizes and posting polls for Challengers Choice and People’s Choice. There will also be selections for Judge’s Choice and Sarah’s Choice.  I just love giving out treats!

In closing, I want to thank all the participants for both their incredible enthusiasm and support for the event. It's folks like you that make the Challenge the good-natured fun that it is. We are not the Golden Daemon, nor are we the Crystal Brush. No, we are The Challenge and it stands quite unique and proud on its own. I doff my hat to you all.

With Warm Regards,

Curt

33 comments:

  1. Lovely entry Curt!

    And a fitting one, since it leads us all onto the road we will have to travel for the next nine months until all this madness starts over again! ;-)

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  2. Beautiful, if not very cheery entry. I absolutely love grey scale and must find some suitable figures to practice on.
    Thank you for all your efforts over the past few months
    Love and kisses

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  3. Excellent last entry Curt! Let's hope our struggly until the 6th edition of the challenge starts won't be as difficult :)

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  4. Very nicely done.. And a fine end to another Challenge

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  5. Grim but somehow beautiful an excellent last piece. I have had great fun with this and plan to be here for next years as well. Don't be strangers people!

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  6. A very worthy note to end with. As always an excellent paint job

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  7. Great figures, very true to Hillcoat's film and McCarthy's novel. Well done!

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  8. Great painting Curt - love the link to the book.

    Thanks also for the Challenge and what must be a heap of work on it.

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  9. Filled with horror that book. It certainly is not the feel good hit of the summer.
    Very nice work on this end point.
    Looks still some interesting things to come.
    Will take a while though to have a look at all the frantic last posts.

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  10. An excellent concluding entry. As a father, I found that book terrifying but irresistible. To be honest, I couldn't bring myself to watch the movie.

    Thanks again for a wonderful challenge - you really do make an outsized contribution of our hobby!

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  11. Wonderful work Curt. I haven't read the book, but now that the Challenge is over I'll have some free time to do so.

    Thank you once more for running this again and putting up with all our madness :)

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    Replies
    1. I've just noticed something - this is post 666! :)

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    2. I saw that too but didn't want to call it out!

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    3. Sarah frequently refers to me as The Beast so it stands to reason. ;)

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  12. Fantastic work! I really like the touch of color in the boy's face contrasting with the grey scale that suits the story so well.

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  13. Bravo Curt. A very fine tribute to McCarthy's book, both in your brushwork and in your prose. I loved the book but it still gives me nightmares. Never seen the film.

    Thanks for running this again. It's a tremendous service to the wargaming community and we are all grateful for you for running it, and the the lovely Sarah who tolerates what must be a large presence in your life for many months. Now that I'm out of the thesis woods on my own Road I'll get that tribute figure to you soonest.
    Best, Michael (PS - you still have time to fly to Ontario for Hot Lead next weekend).

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  14. A warm thank you Curt, for all your hard work and dealing with I'm sure some anal painters among us (ahem) . I never worked so hard on the Challenge as this year, and frankly I'm exhausted but it was worth it.

    I believe this challenge has a special place in the wargaming web, and it keep growing, and that's awesome. Cheers

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  15. Great movie and an even better book. There aren't enough superlatives to express what a great job you do in hosting this event each year. It really is the highlight of my hobby and gets me wanting to push myself to explore technique, grow as a painter, and actually finish some figures that have been lying around for decades. Thanks to you, and by extension Sarah, for doing what you do.

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  16. Thanks for hosting again, not sure how you manage to do it and the growing numbers and quantity is staggering. It's one of the warmest and friendliest places of our hobby and that's saying a lot

    Thanks again

    Ian

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  17. What a perfect final post. A beautiful vignette.

    Thanks so much again for all the hard work you do in organizing this thing.

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  18. A great way to end the challenge - as others have said, very fitting and I think the greyscale suits these perfectly. I've not read the book, but have seen the film.
    Excellently made and horrifying to the extent I found it tough to watch but I'm very glad that I've seen it.

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  19. Very cool finish and excellent execution of greyscale! That is a very good book and film, both are very heavy too in the soul and heart crushing sense.
    I'm all set to sign up again! I was even sitting at my paint table getting back to work this morning- I wasn't even awake! ;)

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  20. Beautiful (as always) work.

    It's been fun, even if I did sort of flame out in the middle. Until next time!

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  21. A magnificent final entry mate. I've never read the book but watched the film recently and you work certainly does it justice.

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  22. A very fitting end to the Challenge Curt, 2 great looking figures, I do like greyscale, it somehow means more than our usual styles of painting.
    I've not heard of either the book or the film, but I shall seek them both out and read and watch them both. Thanks Curt for all the hard work over the last couple of months, and hopefully in the next Challenge I can get back to my former mental painting abilities!!!

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  23. You surpassed yourself once again! This little vignette is bloody marvellous. So packed full of character one can almost feel the desperation.
    Thank you for organizing this most enjoyable of competitions. I'm already looking forward to next years challenge.

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  24. Thanks again Curt, superb and appropriate piece for the end of the challenge (if a little sombre!). Great movie.

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  25. Super job Curt , and to all participants!
    I have just landed another bunch of Gallipoli figures, so my own challenge for this year continues... , I have 14-21 days to paint 10 more Turks, and 10 Anzac Casualties... wish me luck!
    See you all next year!

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  26. Fantastic entry to wrap up another wonderful competition Curt - I don't know how you keep up the energy but I'm sure glad you do! Well done to all the participants.

    It was great watching from the sidelines this year, but that was nowhere near as fun (or productive) and being in the tick of it as I was last year. Hopefully I'll be back with a vengeance in 2016 - that gives me scope to grow that lead pile wonderfully high before then!

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  27. Very effective the way you have painted the figures.
    Also enjoyed the book.

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  28. Curt, those figures are fantastic. Thanks so much for the past 3 months.

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  29. And a very worthy closing entry it is! Great theme and even better execution. Now I do have my doubts whether I want to read that book or see the movie; 4 years ago I would have but since the birth of my son I am strangely emotional regarding children in dangerous situations like these.

    Anyway I am would totally understand it if you do not want to start another Challenge next year seeing all the work you have had to do for this one, but perhaps you could share the load with some others? Because I for one would like to enlist yet again next time!

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  30. Magnificent, Curt! Truly splendid work, and huge congratulations to all the participants. It has been a great pleasure and privilege watching the Challenge unfold this year. My own Challenge collapsed before it really got started - real life and work got firmly in the way, and refused to move. But everyone's wonderful entries cheered me up greatly - and thank you all for that!.

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