Isaac's paintings

Isaac's paintings
Several of Isaac's paintings are assembled to form a prophetic narrative.
First mentioned:	Genesis
Current status:	Most of Isaac's prophetic paintings are at Isaac's apartment; some are in Linderman's archives.

Isaac Mendez's precognitive abilities take the form of paintings, some completed while high on heroin. His paintings are considered prophecies, and many have been fulfilled. Along with the 9th Wonders! graphic novels, Isaac has produced the following paintings.

See Also

For more of Isaac's work, see 9th Wonders! or Isaac's sketchbooks.

For a comparison of Isaac's work with the realization of his prophecies, see Prophecy.

For detailed discussions of particular paintings, see:

• Exploding Man
• Hiro and the Dinosaur
• Homecoming Series
• Invisibility Series
• Dead Isaac Series
• The missing painting

Gallery

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  At the Deveaux Gallery, Isaac is confronted by a woman he has painted being hit by a bus.
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  Simone prevents Isaac from destroying this painting of the eclipse.
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  A hand holds a glass of boiling water in front of a red background. Originally intended as a depiction of the engineer, this now depicts Ted Sprague. Isaac paints over this canvas with black paint.
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  An unfinished painting shows a girl wearing a yellow coat. (See the original painting.)
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  Simone stands in silhouette with her portfolio in Isaac's doorway, exactly as she does when she later arrives.
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  This depiction of a burning bus is confirmed to be a suicide bombing in Israel.
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  The depiction of a fiery train wreck in Odessa, TX proves prophetic. Claire Bennet saves a man from this incident and the story is seen by Isaac on the news.
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  This portrait depicts a man jumping off a building and seemingly flying. This is the painting that encourages Peter Petrelli to do the same thing.
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  The depiction of a large explosion and the resulting mushroom cloud in Midtown Manhattan is painted directly on the concrete floor of Isaac's apartment.
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  A girl walks away from a boy in a school hall. A previous scene indicates these are Claire Bennet and her classmate Zach, respectively.
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  Isaac keeps a notebook of unfinished sketches.
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  Isaac sketches women.
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  A couple kisses under a red umbrella. A previous scene indicates that the couple is Peter Petrelli and Simone.
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  Isaac sketched a portrait for Charles Deveaux's seventieth birthday.
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  Isaac paints Uluru the Invincible, a giant rock monster. This painting would become the cover of 9th Wonders!, Issue #13.
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  Claire climbs the stone bleachers at Union Wells High, with a shadowy figure looming over her.
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  Hiro and Ando stand under a blood-soaked homecoming banner.
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  Peter is surrounded by flying locker doors. He is later attacked by Sylar in this fashion.
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  Claire looks frightened.
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  Isaac didn't finish this painting of a menacing figure.
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  The same painting, completed by Peter, shows the figure standing over Jackie's brainless corpse with red paint dripping from the canvas. The body was once thought to be Claire's, referencing the message, "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World".
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  Several paintings assemble to form a comic book page with a panel missing.
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  A painting shows Mohinder Suresh scattering his father's ashes.
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  This painting at first seems to depict Niki Sanders with a large sum of money.
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  Isaac rubs a layer off the same painting to reveal the Symbol, indicating it is a painting of Jessica, not Niki.
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  A car explodes. This is later revealed to be a car destroyed by Ted as he escapes from FBI custody.
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  A painting of a busy redheaded waitress is later revealed to be Charlie Andrews.
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  A digital image of a painting shows Peter Petrelli, dead at Union Wells High School. Nathan purchased the original from Mr. Linderman, but then destroyed it so Peter would not see it.
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  At Primatech Paper Co., Isaac is coerced into painting this depiction of an exploding figure with raised arms (much to the chagrin of Mr. Bennet). Later in a vision, Peter comes to believe that he is the cause of the explosion.
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  A sketch depicts Charlie Andrews greeting Hiro Nakamura and Ando Masahashi, and then Hiro and Charlie conversing.
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  Isaac drew Charlie and Hiro conversing, as Ando waits.
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  A closeup of the same sketch shows the two deep in conversation at the Burnt Toast Diner in Midland, TX.
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  For the first time while not under the influence of heroin, Isaac paints Hiro Nakamura confronting a dinosaur while wielding a sword. Upon seeing this painting, Hiro worries about stepping on a bug.
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  New York, post-explosion, is seen from Charles Deveaux's rooftop.
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  A woman's purse seems to fly through the air.
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  A street corner appears empty.
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  Isaac and Simone embrace on Charles Deveaux's rooftop.
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  An unseen object rushes towards a parked taxi cab.
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  Peter Petrelli, half-invisible, recovers next to the smashed cab.
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  Isaac paints footprints on Charles Deveaux's rooftop.
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  Isaac paints Peter Petrelli standing in Isaac's apartment.
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  This painting of Claire Bennet's autopsy hangs in Linderman's archives.
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  The archives also have a painting of Peter hovering.
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  Isaac paints a series of paintings of his own death. His gun sits beside his body.
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  His eyes are staring widely.
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  His mouth is locked in a scream.
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  His brain has been removed.
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  This painting of Nathan Petrelli as president hangs in Linderman's archives.
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  This painting of Niki and Jessica Sanders's split reflection is also in the archives.
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  This painting of Mr. Bennet also hangs in the archives.
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  This painting, from a scene in 9th Wonders!, also hangs in the archives.
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  The fifth painting in Isaac's series of his own death shows Sylar standing over Isaac's corpse.
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  In the future, Hiro finds paintings of The Symbol...
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  ...spread out all over Isaac's apartment...
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  ...and no trace of Isaac's other paintings.

Heroes 360

In addition to the paintings seen in the graphic novels and the episodes, a few paintings have appeared as part of the Heroes 360 ARG:

• 
  This painting of the Symbol is labeled Godsend (and is not dated).

Other paintings first appeared in the online archives, but subsequently appeared in an episode. These include the painting of Claire's autopsy, the painting of Nathan as president, the painting of Niki and Jessica's reflection, and the painting of Mr. Bennet.

Notes

• Given that Isaac was killed and was not seen painting any of the Symbol paintings seen by Hiro in the future, it's likely these paintings are actually by Sylar.

Trivia

• Isaac's paintings are produced for the show by comic book artist Tim Sale. Because he is colorblind, Tim illustrates his images with black ink, sometimes diluted for greytones. The drawings are then digitally scanned at 11" x 17", colorized by Dave Stewart, and then manipulated to make them appear as if they were painted. The finished product is then blown up and printed on canvas.
• The exception to this process is the painting of the explosion on the studio's floor. In an interview, Tim said "it's one of the few that there’s no wash, it's just strictly black-and-white. The original is about 10"-by-15", and I created three or four different versions of it. For the pilot, they blew it up in black-and-white first. Before the pilot aired, they went in and colored it digitally on the film." He also elaborated that it's not a painting on the floor. Instead, "What they did was reproduce it on a sort of large rubberized mat that they placed down on the floor. They’ve replaced it at least once. It’s a different image based on mine, and it was actually colored in originally. I guess that’s because they didn’t want to go back in and color it (in post-production) every time."
• In a forum post, Tim Sale said that oftentimes, a lot of his art "sits around for weeks waiting to be used." At other times, the whole process — from assignment to execution to color to scanning to printing and stretching the canvas to filming — is less than a week (though the production staff tries to avoid a rushed pace).
• In an interview, Santiago Cabrera said that he suggested Francisco Goya's period of "dark paintings" as an influence on Isaac's paintings. Tim Sale said that Goya's influence can most prominently be seen in the painting of Mohinder.
• Because the details of the scene (including the director, the wardrobe, the actor) had not yet been definitely determined when the painting of Mohinder in the river was created, Tim Sale said that he decided to focus more on the mood of the painting than on the details.
• In a forum post, Tim Sale said he gave the production staff his personal sketchbook, and thought they would return it to him as soon as they gleaned what they needed. He was surprised when they made larger copies of the sketches and pasted them into a new sketchbook to be used as a prop.
• Tim Sale said that the sketch of Peter and Simone kissing was made using charcoal pencil, some wash, and colored ink. In an interview, Tim Sale said that he is not great at likenesses, so when it came time to create the sketch, he told producer Jeph Loeb, "Maybe I'll Eisner it." It was determined that rather than perfect likenesses, the important thing to get across was the mood, the red umbrella, and to see that it is two people being intimate with each other. Incidentally, Jeph's daughter, Audrey, asked to get the sketch, so Tim gave it to her as a gift.
• In an interview, Tim Sale noted that the image of Claire being chased is "very existential/German-expressionistic and it looks like Nosferatu coming to get her." He likens the building used as a basis for Union Wells as being straight out of the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.
• Tim Sale said he created the sketch of Charles Deveaux in graphite. Likewise, the sketches of Hiro, Ando, and Charlie at the Burnt Toast Diner are done in pencil.
• Tim Sale has said that he is particularly proud of the painting of the train wreck and the painting of Claire being chased by a shadow. His least favorite is the painting of Peter flying, because he thinks "it’s kind of a sissy drawing" and "it looks silly." He also said "it has this pansy quality to it that bugs me". In fact, the only part of the painting Tim liked was the coat.
• Linderman's archives contain a painting of Peter hovering. This art is actually cropped from a much larger promotional piece Tim Sale created to match a cast photo for Entertainment Weekly.

External Links

• Wizard Entertainment Interview with Tim Sale about his Heroes art

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Isaac's paintings for fan-created theories and other speculation.