I was re-reading my Rayearth manga and this image of Guru Clef really struck me. His supplicant posture with the ribbons of his staff swirling around him really spoke volumes about his despair without ever needing a clear view of his face. So, I decided to wall it. (Besides, there's not a lot of walls featuring just Clef.) This was really an exercise in coloring a manga scan, something I haven't done in years, and I really had fun experimenting with the smudge tool to get the soft folds in the cloth to stand out. The background is based on the original scan, showing the destruction of Cephiro with rocks flying out. This scene in the manga has Clef asking himself, "Is this world (Cephiro) truely beautiful?" and even though his world is crumbling apart around him, he cannot find it in his heart to pray for Cephiro's one hope of salvation, for the burden of that salvation is too high a price to pay. To keep that tone I kept the wall very dark and used some textures to add a hint of grunge. Unfortunately the darkness also obscures the work I did on breaking up the floor. Oh well.
Dedicated to Flyindreams and Crapmonster, because I really, really had tons of fun last Wednesday.
More resolutions at DA! Desktop Anime