Alex Ledante
Remember my WIP of Dorcas? This is another character from the Book of the New Sun, a hierodule. Better known to the populace as cacogens, they are visitors to Urth from other worlds. They wear masks to hide their true faces, so perhaps they are not so different from us after all, these travelers who once tread upon a distant soil
#1 release version
I just can't get enough of painting ambiguous characters in robes. This is certainly low-hanging fruit but what fun? The mask is a new twist on the theme; now you can't even be sure if the face underneath is even human, and I took care not to give any definitive hints as to the anatomy underneath the fabric. Since my first taste of the exotic was reading Arabian Nights, whenever I think of a far away place the initial location is inevitably somewhere in Asia Minor and these pieces are no exception
#2 rough sketch
#3 Lynch mix
This is the version inspired by David Lynch. Since one of my favorite techniques is depicting things in a much more sinister fashion than they would normally appear, it should come as no surprise that I often look to Lynch for clues on how to portray even mundane subjects in disturbing manner
While the piece is filled with elements which should evoke a Lynch kinda vibe, I didn't want to plagiarize so only the mask is taken directly from his work. While the rest of my decisions were made with that certain bias, this piece could hardly be considered derivative...
That’s a really interesting work!
I’m glad you think so, but we are in a minority…
So mysterious. Kind of haunting but I like it.
I used a very light touch here, to allow for a great deal of ambiguity