(urth) Fuligin in illustration

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

I think the point of fuligin is that it doesn't reflect light at all. Albedo
0.

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 4:49 PM, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>wrote:

> Old topic, I know. hopefully it's not unwelcome to respond to some very old
> posts.
>
> I'm an illustrator, and I've been sketching some scenes from this book over
> the last month or so.  Fuligin is a challenge that I didn't think it would
> be.
>
> First of all, while the text says:
> "the hue fuligin, which is darker than black, admirably erases all
> folds, bunchings, and gatherings so far as the eye is concerned, showing
> only a featureless dark."
>
> Does anyone read this as saying that highlights wouldn't show up?
> It seems to me that it says "folds, bunchings, and gatherings" – all things
> that create shadows, become a "featureless dark".  But what of highlights?
> Surely when a light (like the claw's) hits it strongly, the cloak would
> catch some of the highlights. I picture this as a lot dimmer of a highlight
> than an ordinary black, but still a highlight.
>
> Anyway, I'm aiming that my illustrations would be considered "legitimate"
> if they were seen by someone familiar with the story.  Does anyone have
> thoughts on this, especially ones that would argue with what I've said above
> about highlights?
>
>
>
> (sorry about the lack of formatting here)
>
> From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
> Subject: (urth) cover art
> Date: 16 Jan 2001 12:40:19
>
> Hurm, I still like the Pennington (original UK) covers best.  But why
> is it so hard for artists to draw a fuligin cloak?  You'd think it
> would be easy, but these artists always insist on making it look like
> it's made of something shiny and reflective.  And they can't seem to
> resist putting a shirt on him.  I'm not looking for a Frazetta Conan
> here, but the first impression should be of the "classic torturer",
> usually depicted topless (see "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins" by
> Dr. Seuss for a good example of the type, and come to think of it, an
> early example of the "compassionate torturer" (urgh, that sounds a bit
> like GWB, sorry)).
>
> ____________________________________
>
>
> I agree, the Pennington covers rule.
>
> First, Yes, Fuligin is a big challenge for the artist.  It just looks wrong
> when you don't put any shadows or highlights.  I imagine it would be VERY
> strange looking in real life, as the text demonstrates.
> IF it doesn't catch highlights, how do you put any subtlety into his mask?
> how do you differentiate the cloak from his pants from his boots?
> The artist is either force to do it literally, which looks very awkward, or
> forced to stylize it, I've used a white edging that is not intended to be
> physically present as a detail
>
> Second:
> the shirtless factor. I'm sorry. I've drawn this several times now. It is
> incredibly difficult to not make Severian look like he's a gay leather-daddy
> BDSM fetishizer.  (absolutely nothing wrong with gay leather daddies, just
> that I'm sure we'd all agree that doesn't really fit Severian)
> And, if you look at those classic shirtless Executioner illustrations, the
> guy is usually a grotesque ox of a man, not the strapping young lad Sev is.
> as soon as you put an athletic figure into it, it looks like bondage gear.
>
>
> ______________________________________________________
>
> From: "Steve Strickland"
> Subject: Re: (urth) fuligin
> Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 20:32:21 -0600
>
> I was looking up the word 'fuligin' in the dictionary the other day.  I was
> interested to see that sitting right in front of the 'fuligin'-like words
> (namely, 'fuliginated', meaning 'of a sooty color or appearance'; 'fuligo',
> meaning 'soot'; and 'fuliginous', meaning 'blackened with soot'), there
> were
> were several similar sounding words derived from a root with a quite
> different meaning.  These were 'fulgurate' ('emit flashes like
> lightening');
> 'fulguration' ('the action of lightening'; 'in assaying, a brightening in
> the appearance of a molten metal'); 'fulgurous' ('resembling, full of or
> charged with lightening').
>
> Like the little girl in the jacal Severian brought back to life, we all
> know
> that the fuligin that is blacker than black, when worn by Severian, the
> torturer who is not a torturer, is in reality whiter than white.  Severian
> is the shadow of the torturer, which means, in Chesterton's terms, that he
> is not the torturer, not death, but something in fact like the opposite of
> death; and it is he who brings the white sun as the new sun.  As I recall,
> toward the end of Citadel of the Autarch Severian even laughs at himself as
> he describes how he exchanged the cloth that is blacker than black for the
> white that is whiter than white.
>
> So I wonder if Wolfe intentionally selected the term fuligin in part
> because
> its root word meaning 'soot' is so similar to the root word meaning
> 'lightening'.   Sort of a play on words.  Something like that would
> certainly be within his bags of tricks, uh, I mean, repertoire.
>
> Steve
>
> ______________________________________________________
>
>
> Brilliant point about this paradox.  This speaks to the transubstantial
> meaning.
>
>
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
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