‘Candledrops’: New Animated Painting

For the 7th artwork in my surreal animated paintings collection, I started with a technical goal: to try out fluid simulations in Blender. I had that in mind while exploring still life paintings and came across Craigie Aitchison’s ‘Candlestick Still Life’ (1960).

Craigie Aitchison’s ‘Candlestick Still Life’ (1960)

I was immediately struck by the jug of water and flowers—quite cooling—that occupies more space in the composition than the titular candlestick! Water + wax. I certainly didn’t need a flame during an August heatwave.

What if a candle emitted water? And what if, rather than flower petals as ornaments, we had flying fish? Sounds like a plan.

The process: model a simple candle in a dark room, simulate a water fountain from the wick (the most time-consuming part), generate some swimming fishies, add some spotlights, implement some glisten/glare in Blender’s compositor, render and run through the awesome Tradigitalist Toolbag.

After adjusting colours and adding some extra canvas texture in After Effects, ‘Candledrops’ was good to go!

Explore the full collection of animated surrealist paintings here.

Take care,
Zuhair