#circle of hell

Ary Scheffer (1795-1858) “The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil” (1835) Oil on canvas Romanticism Located in the Wallace Collection, London, England

Demon Knight https://www.deviantart.com/carpet-crawler/art/Demon-Knight-Commission-Work-827134133

Another commission, finished!

William Blake

The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto V, 37-138, 'The Circle of the Lustful' 

Canto V

This one, who now will never leave my side, Kissed my mouth, trembling. A Galeotto, that book!

Dante and Virgil now descend into the Second Circle of Hell, smaller in size than the First Circle but greater in punishment. They see the monster Minos, who stands at the front of an endless line of sinners, assigning them to their torments. The sinners confess their sins to Minos, who then wraps his great tail around himself a certain number of times, indicating the number of the circle to which the soul must go. Like Charon, Minos recognizes Dante as a living soul and warns him not to enter; it is Virgil’s word that again allows them to pass unmolested.

Dante and Virgil pass into a dark place in which torrential rains fall ceaselessly and gales of wind tear through the air. The souls of the damned in this circle swirl about in the wind, swept helplessly through the stormy air. These are the Lustful— those who committed sins of the flesh.

Dante asks Virgil to identify some of the individual souls to him; they include many of great renown, including Helen, for whose sake the Trojan War was fought, and Cleopatra. Dante immediately feels sympathy for these souls, for essentially they are damned by love. With Virgil’s permission, he calls out to the souls to see if they will speak to him and tell him their story. One woman, Francesca, recognizes Dante as a living soul and answers him. She relates to him how love was her undoing: bound in marriage to an old and deformed man, she eventually fell in love with Paolo da Rimini, her husband’s younger brother. One day, as she and Paolo sat reading an Arthurian legend about the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, each began to feel that the story spoke to their own secret love. When they came to a particularly romantic moment in the story, they could not resist kissing. Francesca’s husband quickly discovered their transgression and had the young lovers killed. Now Paolo and Francesca are doomed to spend eternity in the Second Circle of Hell. Overcome with pity, Dante faints again.

Another step-by-step process, this time of a piece commissioned by https://kanellinda.deviantart.com/ The description went as follows: "A knight which is the protector and tormentor of the souls in the circle of Gluttony." Pretty interesting stuff!

I used the same method I recently tested with my last painting, The Gift of the Angels. That is, first a rough sketch, then detailed "ink" lines, then flat colors based on a somewhat improvised palette. After that, I kinda turn off the lights, and then start painting the highlights, turning the lights back on little by little. Then it's just a matter of blurring, adding shadows where needed, and detailing. I'm enjoying using this way of approaching illustrations so far, and really liking the results! Still need to detail it a bit more to call it finished, but it's almost there.