Paradise
(the Imagine Dragon Version)
30″ x 48″ Oil Painting on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas with 1 1/2 Profile“
Below, there are five views of the painting Paradise in different stages of development.
This is the drawing phase of the painting.
As you can see, I’ve filled in the sky, clouds and the rider’s jacket.
There were three reasons I choose this horse and rider: the lighting on the horse, the rider’s leather jacket, and the rider and horse are very young.
At the later stages of the painting, I have really begun to pull out the cloud behind the rider. The jacket is fully developed. The horse’s head and shoulders are beginning to have a great feel. But the ground, the mountains and the horse’s body are still underutilized and I am at odds with what I will do with them all.
Also, you might notice I added strong greens, purples, blues, reds and yellow-oranges to flesh out the head and shoulders of the horse. But because of the image quality (very few pixels), the strength of the colors might not be apparent.
In the final stage of the painting, I’ve made all my decisions, but I still didn’t want to develop the rider’s face to match the horse’s level of complexity.
The title of the painting is based on Imagine Dragon’s song Paradise and, in particular, the lyrics, “…there was a boy, who expected the world…but it flew away from his reach….”
I wanted the rider to be indifferent, unconcerned, idle thoughts – all the trappings of youth. This painting spotlights the juxtaposition of youth’s infinite possibilities and that which is to come – fate.
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