Icarus: Step 21
The last few parts of the painting are now wrapped up with relative ease. The last of the toga falls into place nicely, flowing down and dropping back into shadow as we get further away from the direct rays of the sun. Visually now, the painting looks complete.
I also decide to add another strap to his arm brace–this one falls down and behind him and is intended as an attachment to the wing tip for when he needs to draw the wings to their full span. I’ve also gone back in and added some glazes to his flesh, although that sort of thing isn’t noticeable on digital reproductions, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. These glazes are mainly to balance out some of the darks and lights in the skin tones to create more consistency between all the painting’s elements now that the rest of the painting has been fully set in place.
And finally, as a clap of thunder rolling over the oily landscape of our new work, I add my signature in the lower right corner. I always sign my works with a Classical lyre on its side, which conveniently takes on the shape of a letter “D”. This is appropriate, as both my first and last names begin with the letter, but also because it’s a symbolic tie-in with the Classical nature of many of my subjects. The lyre is also a symbol of the Greek god Apollo, who is the patron god of music (which I personally translate to “art in general”), the god of light, of intellectual pursuits, and the god of truth who “cannot speak a lie”, among other things. These are all characteristics I find very appealing, and my signature references them all.
Below my name I also like to include a little triangle with 3 small balls. This is a simplified version of my family coat of arms, which in actuality has 3 fleur-de-lit in the same arrangement. I have, however, found fleur-de-lit incredibly difficult to reproduce on such a tiny scale, so I’ve opted for the simpler blob-of-paint-with-a-highlight instead.
