Original size 8.5x11 © 2011 Alex Ledante |
Lately I've been taking a lot of flak about the lack of male figures in my art, so I decided it was time to start bringing men back into picture, so to speak. Since I had been wanting to illustrate a cover of Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime for years, it seemed like a great place to start
Working on this piece was a pleasure, since I got to play one of my favorite CDs on loop and just paint my heart out. My original concept was to raytrace a church and have Mary sitting on the altar with a syringe at the end of a rosary but that notion ultimately seemed both too literal and obvious. I wanted my interpretation to be more symbolic and mysterious; like a Renaissance painting...
This solution uses color and lighting in a psychological and compositional sense, while Mary's outfit is meant to be reminiscent of a habit. Speaking of habits, her kit is an Armani knock-off
Below is an alternate version with a title bar, mocked up as if it were the cover of a graphic novel...
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