Archive No. 2 - Myths Reimagined
Ideas can reveal themselves to you in many different forms. Sometimes it's going back to a place you haven't been to in a long time, it could be a forgotten song or poem, or even a merging of old and new things.
One day, I was listening to the band Thrice. I was a big fan of their music when I was younger but hadn't really listened to them in ages. As it goes, I had one of their songs randomly pop into my head, so I decided to get reacquainted with their music and came across their song 'Daedalus.'
This song tells the story of the inventor Daedalus and his son Icarus. Being a big fan of Greek mythology, I instantly loved it. If you aren't familiar with the story, Daedalus fashions a pair of wings for himself and his son to escape the island they are imprisoned on. He crafts the wings out of feathers, wax, and string. Before they make their grand flight, Daedalus tells Icarus to keep to the middle path. He warns him that flying too low will soak the wings and flying too high will melt the wax. Tragically, Icarus doesn't listen and flies too close to the sun, only to plummet to his death.
I suddenly had the urge to create an alternative version of the story. What if Daedalus still gave Icarus the warning, but things got reversed? What if Daedalus attempted to save his son and was successful, but Icarus was left to deal with the consequences of his hubris?
I thought it would be really fun to set this story against a Victorian steampunk background. There are many natural, overlapping themes—such as inventors, flying machines, and fantastical creations. I started thinking about how I wanted to portray Icarus and decided to have him crash-land on a city rooftop.
After gathering some reference images, I decided on a kneeling pose where he looks down at a scattered newspaper, staring at an article about his father that reminds him of everything he lost.
After all of the flat colors were down, it was just many hours (nearly 32.5 to be exact!) of adding shadows, highlights, contrasting colors, texture, and all the little painting techniques that really make a painting come alive. Towards the end of the process, the sky was still bothering me. The sunset was just not having the effect I wanted. After playing around with the colors a bit, I realized it was just way too bright and cheery for the feeling I was aiming for. I ended up toning down the sky a bit and added more blue and purple tones, and then everything flowed together much more harmoniously.
Steampunk Icarus
Here is the finished painting! I'm really happy with how it turned out. It was really fun to take a classic tale and look at it in a different light!
See what I'm currently working on