Development of a Painting: Heracles and the Mares of Diomedes
Detail of Heracles and the Mares of Diomedes
I have been working on a new painting: Heracles and the Mares of Diomedes. It is another in a series of paintings based on the twelve labors of Heracles (Hercules) and I’ve already written about two labors I’ve painted already, Heracles and the Nemean Lion and Heracles and the Boar of Erymanthos. The Mares of Diomedes were four man eating mares. Heracles had to steal them for King Eurystheus, to whom he had to perform the twelve tasks for. The Mares belonged to the giant Diomedes, king of Thrace, and they feasted on men’s flesh. In order to round up the mares, Heracles killed their master, fed them to the mares, and in their calmed state Heracles could manage to bring them to Eurystheus.
To begin, I did a number of sketches of horses. The book ANIMALS: 1419 Copyright-Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish Insects, etc. A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources by Jim Harter has been very helpful as it has many well rendered, expressive illustrations of animals.
Book of Animal Illustrations by Jim Harter
Here are some of the sketches I did:
Studies of Horses
I then got the idea of seeing Heracles as a some kind of cowboy, wrangling up the mares as if he was in a rodeo. I turned to Youtube.com which is a huge resource for finding just about any kind of visual, and found some videos of bucking horses and bronco riding. From these videos I did some more sketches:
More sketches of horses from rodeo videos
I was now ready to start the painting and I first started with the mares. When I initially started the painting, I read an account where there were only three mares. At first, I laid out the painting with just three mares.
Early stage of painting with no Heracles figure
Having laid out the compostion with the three horses I know had to establish where Heracles would be. I had originally planned that Heracles would be riding one of the horses, almost as if he was riding them like a cowboy. However, I found that I didn’t know exactly where to place the Heracles figure. I decided to try different versions so I went to Photoshop and played with moving Heracles around in the painting:
Heracles figure riding the mare to right
Heracles chasing after the mares
Heracles trying to lift the mare to the right
Heracles in the foreground, wearing the pelt of the Nemean Lion
Even though it was a bit of a departure from the idea of Heracles riding the mares like a cowboy, I liked the last image the best as it conveyed a crouching Heracles as part man, part animal (as he is wearing the pelt of the Nemean Lion who he slayed in his first labor), ready to strike at the oncoming mares. I decided to go with that image.
I wanted to keep the initial looseness of the painting so I didn’t add too much to the horses. I also wanted Heracles to be brighter and have more contrast tonally. Here is the result:
Heracles figure now painted in
Is was at this point where I realized that the myth of the Mares of Diomedes consisted of four mares and not three. I was a little set back by this realisation because I thought it might affect the overall composition. However after playing around with some different ways to place the fourth mare I realized I could place the last mare in where it would coodinate with the overall painting well.
Here is the final piece:
Heracles and the Mares of Diomedes, oil on canvas, 2009
Detail of Heracles and the Mares of Diomedes
Detail of Heracles and the Mares of Diomedes
Development of a Painting: Herakles and the Boar of Erymanthos
I am currently working on a series of paintings based on the twelve labors of Herakles (Hercules). I already wrote about painting Herakles first labor. The fourth labor of Herakles is to capture a vicious boar who is terrorizing the region of Mt. Erymanthos. Heracles chases after the boar and is finally able to seize it when the boar is caught in the snowy slopes of the mountain. Heracles brings the boar back to King Eurystheus (for whom Herakles must perform his labors) who jumps in a vase in fright at the sight of the boar.
I was excited to do this painting because I really like painting snow and snowstorms. Perhaps its because of my ties to Minnesota, USA, but some of my favorite paintings have been where there are figures caught in some type of snowfall/blizzard. Here are a couple:
"February", acrylic on canvas, 2004
"Snow", oil on canvas, 2002
I think what I like about painting snowy scenes is how the snow itself can dissolve the figure and merge it nicely with its surrounding environment. Also, I tend to like the look of a desaturated color image ( think old color photographs, ukiyo-e prints or paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec ) as the tones feel more unified. With the range of whites, grays and blues in a blustery winter scene the image can become something quite subtle and minimal, which I like.
With this in mind I set off to arrange my piece. Here’s a quick thumbnail sketch I did:
Thumbnail sketch to arrange compostion
I wanted to show the boar as a tough customer, but at the same time convey that it was indeed the victim. Here are some quick studies I did for the boar.
Boar studies
They all looked pretty static thought (and some looked too damn cute), so I checked out the opening sequence to Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece “Ran” where the cast of characters are on a boar hunt.
Finally I felt I would go with something like this sketch:
Another boar sketch
But a little more stylized and more graphic.
When it came to the figure of Heracles, I wanted to show him as the menacing predator who manages to outrun and trap the luckless boar. I also wanted to show him pursuing the figures in a calm and determined manner in his pursuit of his victim. Here are some sketches:
Figure studies for Herakles
Perhaps I feel sympathetic for the boar but he is the prey after all. I also wanted to accentuate Herakles’ lion pelt which he got from defeating the Nemean Lion in an earlier labor as a way to portray Herakles as half man, half beast.
For the actual painting process, I painted the composition in acrylic with a range of grays that I made from mixing white, blue and brown. Once everything was set in, I did another layer this time in oil paint to draw out the contrast and some detail in the figures and the mountains. Finally, I painted in the snow falling which I made through painting it on directly with brushes, sponges, rollers and sticks, and splattering it on as well. I made sure to mask the main figures a bit while doing the splatter technique.
Here is the final result of the piece:
"Herakles and the Boar of Erymanthos", oil and acrylic on canvas, 2009
Here is a detail of Herakles:
Detail of Herakles
and a detail of the boar:
Detail of the boar
Development of a Painting: Herakles and the Nemean Lion
Detail of Herakles and the Nemean Lion
I am currently working on a series of paintings based on Greek myths that have been a lot of fun to work on. The myths are exciting and dramatic and they lend well to personal interpretation. It’s no surprise that artists through out the ages have been inspired to recreate the myths in their own eyes — Titian, Velazquez, Caravaggio, and Botticelli just to name a few.
Among the paintings I am working on are the twelve labors of Herakles. The twelve labors interest me because of the wonderful array of challenges that Herakles faces. Each adversary is so colorful, often times more interesting than Herakles himself. It also fascinates me how Herakles, the greatest of heroes in Greek mythology, takes on so many different roles throughout the twelve labors. Whether he is a hulking brute, a cunning strategician, a sly charmer, an overwhelmed underdog, or a menacing predator Herakles always comes out in the end as the heroic champion.
Herakles first labor is to hunt and kill the Nemean Lion. Of course, Herakles is successful in his mission, and from then on wears the lion’s own impenetrable pelt (which he skinned by using the lion’s own claws) for his subsequent adventures.
For this painting I had the idea of the two figures of Herakles and the lion interlocked in some type of circular formation that would somehow fit nicely in the rectangular compostion of the frame. I first started off with a few thumbnail sketches:
First thumbnail sketch
Second thumbnail sketch
Third thumbnail sketch
Sketches of big cats
Prepatory Sketch: ink wash on paper
Judo sketch 1
Judo sketch 2
Judo sketch 3
I continued this and tried to substitute one of the figures with a lion to see how that would look:
Judo sketch 4 with lion
Judo sketch 5 with lion
I liked the very first judo sketch so I tried to place it in a composition with some aspects of a surrounding environment around the two figures:
Judo sketch 1 with surrounding environment
Kolimbrithes, Paros
Judo sketch 1 with lion and more detailed background
I didn’t take any pictures as I was actually making the painting, mostly because I worked too fast. Since I was painting pretty loose with a lot of paint thinner, I had to work fast because although it was an oil painting it actually was drying quickly. I ended up doing the painting in one shot over the course of a day. My objective was to move and push the paint around in a way where it didn’t seem too controlled and it retained the energy of a sketch, while having the resolution and impact of a finished painting.
Herakles and the Nemean Lion, oil on canvas, 2009