And Jesus Wept

Inspired by a Clive Barker short story called Chilliad. (I'm not 100% sure that it's currently in print anywhere?)

There was a very moving part with a character with a strong Jesus parallel, and so I tried to make this visually similar to the classic iconography of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, you know, Jesus pointing to his flaming heart. The figure and the background are done in acrylic ink, and the fire is done on the computer. This was a wise decision I think, because I'm sure I would have screwed up the fire if I had tried to paint it with paint, and I would have ended up painting this five times over to get it right. I'm not 100% sure I'm pleased with the end result of the fire, but I think I stumbled onto an interesting effect that I will be able to use in the future, so in that sense, I am happy. It was a fun challenge to research the human circulatory system. Can't say I've ever had a reason to do that before!

I have to say, I don't know if it's because I am an atheist or what, but I am somewhat uninterested in Christian mythology and iconography and etc. Maybe it's because it's so all-pervasive, I'm not really sure what it is, I'm just not that interested. BUT, I absolutely love the way Clive Barker writes about Christianity. He presents this different and very bleak, very very very bleak spin on it that I find very very interesting. I am thinking specifically of Chilliad and Mister B Gone although I'm sure there's other examples too that I haven't read yet. If you can find this story somewhere, I recommend reading it, it's very good.

Acrylic ink and digital effects.