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Icarus: Step 2 »

Icarus: Step 1

Icarus

It’s nice to once again have the opportunity to be back in The Artist’s Studio here at Quent Cordair Fine Art. This time around, I’ll be escorting you through the process of one of my figure paintings. I hope those who peruse this literary attempt to describe the creation of my painting will find it both interesting and edifying, and at least slightly more exciting than the recipe suggestions on the reverse side of a bag of tortilla chips (which, frankly, I can’t get enough of–the chips, that is).

My subject for this painting is–pictorially–a relatively straightforward portrayal of the Classical Greek hero, Icarus. Those of you who have done a little poking around this website will of course be aware that Icarus–the man who took flight with the wings of his father, Daedalus, and strove to fly as high as the sun–is a repetitive subject among the artists here at Quent Cordair Fine Art. If one chooses to ignore the tragic ending of the original Greek myth, the story of Icarus is a rather inspiring one and a good symbol of an individual’s struggle to achieve the greatest of accomplishments, regardless of the risks involved in doing so. Interpreting the myth this way requires a rather long stretch from the original story, which is essentially a parable of the rashness of youth and the folly of ambition (basically the opposite of the ideal that I am personally attempting to present in this painting). So before I get started, I would like to openly invite any Classical Greeks out there who have a bone to pick with me over my turning their myth on its head to step forward now to defend its original negative theme, or forever hold their peace…..

None? Well then, let’s have no nitpicking over my mutilation of the original story and get on with it.

To get things started, I’ve included an image of the final compositional drawing for the painting. We’ll do a quick step-by-step of this drawing before we get to the painting itself.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005 at 11:51 am and is filed under Icarus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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About Bryan Larsen ~

Bryan Larsen

"I was born on February 12, 1975, and have been drawing as long as I can remember. By the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be an artist, although at the time I didn't have a clear idea of how exactly I would use my talents to make a living.

"As I continued studying art, I began to suspect that fine visual art was dead. No one seemed interested in teaching students how to draw well, or paint well. More often than not, my own skills exceeded those of my instructors.

"The only field left that seemed to require good drawing, painting, and compositional skills was illustration, and therefore I began studying illustration at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. I became even more convinced that I had made the right decision in staying away from fine art as I endured course after course of required "drawing" and "painting" classes in which instructors required me to draw with "less focus", or use ridiculous materials such as shellac, glue, sand, salt, etc.

"My second year at Utah State, I met Damon Denys. In discussing Art with him I realized that there were other people who believed that technique and subject matter were indispensable components of any work of art. I then decided that I would work to develop my own painting skills with the purpose of creating artwork that I considered worthy of being called Fine Art.

"Since that time, I have studied on my own: Drawing from live models to learn the human form, studying proper painting techniques from any source I could find ample reason to trust, and developing a philosophy of Art based on reason, and life on earth.

"My goal is to portray the heroic and romantic in human nature and human achievement in a realistic style and a modern setting. I place particular emphasis on composition, technique, realistic detail, proper craftsmanship and consistency of style."