Rainbow Art Journal – Icarus

One of my sons is obsessed with Greek Mythology – all of my kids were at one point – and that means that, thanks to osmosis, I have become a bit of a Greeky Mythology nerd myself.  The mythological figures, especially the monsters, therefore often appear in my sketchbooks.  A few years ago now, that theme was even the basis for a challenge I did to draw 40 drawings in 40 days.  I have contemplated returning to that theme for a whole series of drawings – but without the time challenge – but that shall be for some future juncture.  For now, I decided to draw Icarus in my Rainbow Art Journal.

I am currently working through the yellow section of my art journal and bold yellow suggested sunshine and sunshine suggested Icarus’ wings melting … This was my thought process.  This was another page that had some little underlying texture as I had previously scraped leftover white acrylic over the page.  You can spot the lumps and bumps.  I kept the illustration simple and, therefore, kept the colour palette limited.  I generally suck at drawing wings but I actually really like the way these turned out given that they are supposed to be a) manmade and b) broken.  I tried using spray inks to create some visual texture between the sun disc and the falling figure but it seems that the inks don’t perform well on top of acrylic – hello, learning opportunity – but it adds a sort of glow around the sun so at least it did not ruin the illustration.

She Built her Wings on the Way Down

The prompt for the second week of Colour Me Positive was about being brave.  Given that I have decided that this year, in order to make progress in several areas of my life, I need to quit fearing failure and learn to take more risks, the theme chimed well with my goals for the year.  The quotation for this week was “She took the leap and built her wings on the way down”.  That too chimed with me because I am such an over-thinker, processing all the possibilities, and such a control freak that I find it difficult to make leaps.  Obviously I am capable of making some significant leaps (I emigrated across the Atlantic after all) but it is something I find really challenging.

It does not always happen when I read prompts, but I immediately had an idea for the art journal page.  The visual image that formed in my head was of Icarus tumbling through a golden sky.  Obviously Icarus’ story is one of failure, hubris and not following parental instructions.  However, I thought I could definitely make something out of a winged figure in a golden sky. The second, optional prompt was to use a silhouette.  I decided to silhouette the wings because it would save me time, not having to draw all those feather details.  The sun is gold paint.  It doesn’t photograph well as all the brush marks show but it is nicely metallic.  I finished the page by stamping the quotation.