Quent Cordair Fine Art

The sort of pseudo-engineering of the wings and their mechanical harness was one of the most fun aspects of working on this little study. I say pseudo-engineering, because I am fully aware of the impossibility of this setup actually allowing anyone, regardless of their physical strength, to glide…much less achieve powered flight. All I was after was a design that looked somewhat plausible and, more important, looked cool. For me, the mechanical nature of the wings is everything. The important part of the story is Daedalus using his ingenuity to defy the gods and the fates. Wings grafted onto Icarus’ back with no visible hint of their operating parts would never have flown…so to speak. Having said all of that, I do plan on modifying this design slightly when I get around to the final painting mainly by increasing the wingspan by at least a third, and perhaps revealing a little mechanical articulation at the main joints in the wings.

Also in this first image, you will note the completion of Icarus’ wee toga, complete with trailing drapery in the style of all good paintings of Greek myth. Sadly, for compositional reasons, and violation of the plausible direction of airflow during our hero’s descent, the trailing drapery’s part in this painting is to be short lived. Even so, painting the toga was an entertaining exercise. My model, as you may imagine, was not so draped during out little photo shoot. In fact, he was wearing the modern day equivalent (a paint of tasteful boxer briefs) which would have been completely anachronistic and considerably less graceful in the painting. So I had to improvise. Certainly I could mock-up some sort of reference for the final painting; though I think I pulled this temporary fix off well enough.
At this point, I was itching to get to painting the wings. However, being the patient painter that I am, I decided to finish the figure first. All that remained was the legs. As with the rest of the figure, my model’s physique provided me with way more information than I could possibly fit into a painting, especially a smallish-sized study such as this. So, working on the legs was as much an exercise in selecting essential details as it was in mixing colors and values. Here is an image of the first leg I completed (the figure’s left)…

…and one of the complete figure, awaiting his wings:

Next I moved on the torso, working in the same fashion as with the arm. Again, the amount of detail available in the reference photos was far greater than would be appropriate for the painting, so I tried to carefully select just those details that would get the job done without going over the top. Even so, you can see there is a lot going on. Here is where the careful and accurate work on the drawing and the transfer really pays off. Since I’ve already figured out where everything goes, how big each muscle is, and how they all fit together, all I have to worry about is color and value…which is plenty…believe me. Not only does each individual form have to turn in space, but the torso as a whole has to appear round.

After the torso was finished, I continued on to the right arm.
All of the flesh tones were basically dry within two days. I decided to paint the leather straps across the chest and around the wrists, as well as the hair before continuing work on the rest of the figure. I didn’t have any scrap for the leather, and I changed the hair enough from the photos that I basically had to wing it there as well. It took a lithe bit of tweaking and adjusting, but in the end I think it worked out pretty well. This photo is obviously not the best, but you get the idea.

The main point of the study may be resolving lighting and design issues with the wings, but it is also a good excuse to do a little figure painting. Besides, the better the rendering of the lighting and color on the figure, the better correlation I can achieve with the lighting and color on the wings.
I started with the face and left arm, since it’s easier for a lefty like me to work from top to bottom and right to left whenever possible. My main goal here is to sculpt the figure, paying special attention to their orientation to the light source, to achieve the illusion of the shapes and forms curving away in space. The model for Icarus was particularly fit. When setting up to shoot the scrap, I had him pull against a wooden pole behind his back to activate the correct muscles in his chest and arms. After a minute or two, the amount of detail visible in the striations of muscle and network of veins was incredible. When painting from such highly detailed reference material, the trick is always to pull out just enough information to get the point across without allowing the details to become more important than the overall form.
I have had many questions about Icarus’ facial expression while working on this painting. To answer a few of the most common, Icarus is looking down because he is negotiating a landing. While it may not be completely apparent in this smaller, more quickly painted version, his expression is one of concentration, and he is breathing out with the strain of hauling against the wings to stop his forward momentum as he touches down. The expression is actually very well represented in the scrap, since by the end of the photo shoot the model was breathing harder with the strain of pulling against the dowel and holding his weight on his bent right leg.

As I mentioned, I was unhappy with the flat concrete wall almost the second I finished it.  Yes, it was busy, but I also thought it was making the figure look a little crowded.  Still, I was limited in what I could place behind the Woman by the reflections in the Floor.  Eventually I realized that a cylindrical concrete column would fit the basic shape of the reflections, but would also push back into space and open up the room so the figure wasn’t all crammed into the corner.  I also determined to keep the texture of the concrete fairly smooth, and let the play of light around the column add the interest.   I think it was a huge improvement.

As for the vista behind the column, I had originally intended to incorporate an arched bridge of some kind to continue the curve formed by the figure’s leg.   However, I was so happy with the figure, and had been so decidedly unhappy with the way the flat, busy concrete had competed with her that I elected to keep the entire background as clean and simple as possible.    A blue sky with a few white clouds would play off the white shirt and blue skirt, and let the woman be the only focal point in the entire composition.  I also really liked the new aesthetic that was emerging with the long vertical lines of the column and its reflection, and the long horizontal of the floor.  It again focused everything on the figure, now the only non-linear component in the picture.
The changes to the concrete and the addition of the sky finished the painting.  I am still extremely happy with the final result, even more so than if I had kept to my original concept.  Unfortunately, my original title ideas along the lines of ‘Arch’ or ‘Structure’ now wouldn’t work.  But the figure’s posture, pose and facial expression suggested to me a person on the cusp of making an important decision.  Once the word ‘Deliberation’ came to mind it seemed to fit the mood of the painting perfectly.

As always, I am more than happy to answer any questions or hear any comments about ‘Deliberation’, my methods, my thoughts on Art in general or any of my other pieces.

Thanks for reading.