I wanted to reply to this question from @just-s0me-stranger about my painting "New prize", so, why not do a full post explaining what i tried to create here! Be ready, because i'm gonna yap a lot !
Also, i'm not used to tumblr, sorry if it's kind of messy
I wanted to illustrate a scene inside of Cazador's palace for a while. Of course i'm inspired by the big old classical paintings where each details means something so i tried to have a lot of things going on there.
Like Astarion implied in the game, Cazador used to organize a lot of soirΓ©e at his mansion, where rich nobles, monsters, devils and spawns were gathering.
The idea was to show one of those soirΓ©e where Astarion is now a new spawn, a new addition to his collection. That's why i named it "New Prize"
Cazador is watching him carefully, his legs crossed, his stare focused on Astarion. I wanted his expression to say "Careful, boy, do not disappoint me".
At first i wanted to draw his staff beside him but it was looking kind of strange. I also tried multiple poses for Cazador posture and hands, but in the end, the relaxed one was making more sense. It shows that Cazador has power and authority, even without his weapons.
The pose of Astarion is submissive; he's removing his shirt/coat, his head bowed a little, looking at the direction of Cazador to follow his orders. His expression is empty; perhaps dissociating because of what he's reduced to do. The whole point was to try to show emotion even with his back turned. Some people think he has a tear going down his cheek but it wasn't on purpose ! As some of you already know, i use references from the game directly; so, this little thing on his cheek is actually just the lighting reflecting. I like the idea of the tear, but it would have been too obvious for me to do that. I want the emotions to be subtle.
Also, he's wearing white shiny clothes. White is the color of purity.
This is Antwun Dufay. You can find his body in one of the rooms of the mansion. I thought that he could have been a good addition in this painting; maybe he was Cazador's favorite before Astarion arrived and had some privileges at those festivities. This is some liberty i took; it was just making sense in my mind. Why have those chair beside his throne if they are empty ? Cazador had to have some people beside him.
It was kind of hard at this point because i wasn't planning to make this painting this big, and i was literally working on pixels, but i tried to make him have a careful expression; he's staring at Astarion, a little cautious.
This is a random character i created. I wanted to give the impression that the room was full of people where we can't see. She's drinking some blood/wine, looking relaxed. She's one of the guests. She has a smirk on her face; she's happy to see this new addition, perhaps finding him interesting.
I'm also heavily inspired by the scenes composition from movies; how the placement of each character has to have sense in the dynamic of the characters, how the lighting/colors impact profoundly a scene. The color are faded; there's red but it's still cold. I tried to give it a sensation of unease/coldness despite the warmth colors around.
Astarion is in front of the scene, but despite that Cazador is the one in control, and it shows by his posture, his demeanor, his expression.
I don't know if i managed to create what i wanted fully, but this painting was a big challenge for sure. I used a lot of references, struggled a lot, but in the end i'm kind of happy with it ! 220+ hours of hard work.
I hope it was interesting to read ! Thank you for asking this question
I would be happy to read about what you guys think about it/how you're seeing what i did there
