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Description
I did this image to illustrate a short passage from Dante's Inferno, in which Dante is being ferried past the "neutrals", who aren't aligned with god or the devil. This came out as a nice complement to my previous image ("Hana") which was just way too overly sweet and pretty. I didn't make a really nasty face or body though as you can see (he did call em "wretches"), but I really do like this sort of combination of beauty and dark imagery, though this leans a little far towards the dark side what with the worms and all. I also tried something new splitting it up into three frames, which I thought was necessary to keep a nice composition and still show detail on the face, ground, and environment. Oh yeah, another thing.. this is kind of important. Since most people don't have their monitor properly calibrated (myself included) the image may be appear much darker than I had planned. I did a histogram on it in photoshop and almost all the colors (and hence detail) were in the lower 1/3 of the palette, so you might have to adjust your monitor's brightness in order for it to look right, especially if you're viewing it in the day.
Anyways, here's the actual passage from the Hollander translation:

"At once with certainty I understood
this was that worthless crew
hateful alike to God and his foes.

These wretches, who never were alive,
were naked and beset
by stinging flies and wasps

that made their faces stream with blood,
which, mingled with their tears,
was gathered at their feet by loathsome worms."

Description
I did this image to illustrate a short passage from Dante's Inferno, in which Dante is being ferried past the "neutrals", who aren't aligned with god or the devil. This came out as a nice complement to my previous image ("Hana") which was just way too overly sweet and pretty. I didn't make a really nasty face or body though as you can see (he did call em "wretches"), but I really do like this sort of combination of beauty and dark imagery, though this leans a little far towards the dark side what with the worms and all. I also tried something new splitting it up into three frames, which I thought was necessary to keep a nice composition and still show detail on the face, ground, and environment. Oh yeah, another thing.. this is kind of important. Since most people don't have their monitor properly calibrated (myself included) the image may be appear much darker than I had planned. I did a histogram on it in photoshop and almost all the colors (and hence detail) were in the lower 1/3 of the palette, so you might have to adjust your monitor's brightness in order for it to look right, especially if you're viewing it in the day.
Anyways, here's the actual passage from the Hollander translation:

"At once with certainty I understood
this was that worthless crew
hateful alike to God and his foes.

These wretches, who never were alive,
were naked and beset
by stinging flies and wasps

that made their faces stream with blood,
which, mingled with their tears,
was gathered at their feet by loathsome worms."