Move over, Superman, you’ve got nothing on these guys!
These two images of Daedalus and Icarus I recently completed for Robert Case, who has published his take of the original story in his book Icarus and the Wing Builder. Told in first person, it gives the account of Daedalus as he travels across the Aegean region, eventually taking on Icarus as an adoptive son. It’s a fascinating tale, full of adventure and intrigue, danger and politics, but most importantly, it’s about the relational bound between the two–father and son, as they become the first humans to take flight.
The way Robert Case tells the story, it’s convincing enough to make one wonder if the legend really did indeed happen.
While I had illustrated the hardcover version of the book with a simple Aegean landscape, for the e-book, we decided to add the two characters in the sky.
Having been bombarded with images of the upcoming Superman vs Batman movie, I decided to piggyback on that theme and pose our two Greek legends in those iconic superhero poses–Daedalus taking on the form of Superman and Icarus taking on the form of Batman.
I decided to experiment and paint on a brown parchment type paper, almost the surface of a paper bag. This proved to be a bit odd to work with, the colors bled a lot and it was hard to control my vibrancy. I played around with back lighting effects, and I was influenced heavily by both Art Deco and a little Steampunk. While the final application of both men was very small in the title area of the e-book, I chose to take the time to render them out with a little more detail and attention, allowing them to work as stand alone images. Final images were clipped from their backgrounds and layered into the background image with the text.
Now if you notice that a few of my illustrations lately have dealt with the topic of flying…
purely coincidental.
