Icarus

        Having decided to create a cut out animation using a pre-existing image of Icarus (as in Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations, which use photos and paintings) I began searching for a painting in a suitably classical style to evoke the ancient Greek origins of the story. 

        One of the most famous images of Icarus is Matisse's The Flight of Icarus, with bold, block colours; not the style I was searching for. Other, more suitable paintings that I discovered unfortunately depicted the character in awkward, contorted poses which would be difficult to transform into cut out models.

Jacob Peter Gowy The Fall of Icarus (rotated).

Herbert Draper Lament for Icarus.

        So I then began searching for an alternative figure who could pass for Icarus. I found quite a wide selection, including work by Burne Jones and Van Dyck, but the two that appealed to me the most were The Death of Abel by Francois Xavier Fabre and The Fisherman and the Siren by Frederic Leighton. The latter, while bearing more of a physical resemblance to the Icarus I had pictured, would require time consuming work to remove the siren and fill in the missing portions of his torso. As Fabre's Abel would also work well, I chose this image.

The Death of Abel.

The Fisherman & The Siren.