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Cacogen – giclee print

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

I did two versions of this, the top version is the Evangelion version. If this piece is popular then I will post that version as well...

#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...

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What do you think?

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9 Comments

    • You’re in good company, the populace both hated and feared the hierodules (who they called cacogens) but they had no wish to harm the people of Urth. Quite the opposite…

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    • Certainly a mask will usually evoke that sort of vibe as they obfuscate by nature but I have a lot of subtle things happening here- his robe is threadbare on the outside but richly embroidered on the inside, and the anatomy itself is ambiguous: None of the limbs are visible…

      1