Assembling the Spartan

Thanks to the number of extraordinary painters in my life I have long been infected with the desire to cover stretched canvas with colorful pigment, despite a background in photography. I would be flattering myself to count myself more than a humble student, inspired by their abilities and imaginations and only ever hope to keep myself interested. As the piece I am going to cover with this writing has kept my interest from conception to completion, even inspiring several more, it seemed both a success and natural choice to document.



From my sketchbook, this is one of the many early doodles to come out of the initial brainstorming. My initial vision was of Spartans, coalescing layer by layer from the very mist they moved through. Being a quarter Greek, the Battle of Thermopylae has always been dear to my heart and imagination.








The cartoon, laid down with Sharpie Enamel Paint Markers. Even though I wanted the various layers of the figure’s physiology to show through I find it easier to start with the complete body and then build the interior from there.










The skeleton has been painted in (I can never seem to get enough research material). My initial trials proved that, contrary to logic, it was easiest to build up the figure from as complete an interior as I am capable of. This allows the transparency I strive for to accumulate and develop organically rather than having pieces look placed over the figure.

The muscles and tendons are beginning to take form now and the hand has been fixed. The spear just wasn’t reading as a spear so you can see the new skeletal hand as well as the replacement

sword.

Now the patterns have begun to really wind in from the edges. The hand and sword are coming along although the shield is still in need of attention. The skin is still not in place though the armor has a decent shine to it.











Here is the signed, sealed and finished canvas. I don't know if it is good or even art but I know I like it, find it interesting and am in the process of working on four more variations of the theme. I'll keep painting them as long as I have fun doing so.