Coffee Table Execution.

No, no. She’s not being executed. I just like having the word execution in the title. (“The ‘X’ makes it sound cool!” as Bender of Futurama fame would say.) What kind of evil, heartless, misogynist monster do you think I am? Executed. Please! She’s being tortured, and that is totally different.

Yes, yet another entry into the series of drawings designed to screw with the minds of mere mortals who take disturbing imagery way too seriously. Because we all know that artists always use models, and for a scene like this we will really hang them until we’re done drawing ... hours later. How long can you hold your breath, bitch?

But seriously. I’m a fan of crime fiction, and nothing beats a murder mystery with a bizarre killer who goes out of his way to kill in an outlandish pattern and leaves deliberate clues and calling cards for the cops. Kind of a game. (Screw you, Saw franchise, for ruining it.) It’s not realistic, but that’s why it’s in the Fiction section.

So, that’s from where this image evolved. Per usual, I drew the subject first, shaded her last. Also per usual, the frame was not conceived as a whole and developed while actually sketching it. I knew when I started that she would be hanged, she’d have some platform just out of toe’s reach, and the setting would be “home-ish.”

Again, per usual, the background is at a nice 90° angle to the perspective, which I realize a hair too late. I had drawn the coffee table under her feet, then thought about drawing the rest of the room only to realize “damn it, people usually place furniture perpendicular/parallel to each other, so since the coffee-table is straight on that means the rest of the room will have to be too, and I don’t feel like redrawing the table ...”

Then again, I always have trouble populating a background period so maybe it’s better this way. I could focus more on “how do I make this room look inhabited“ instead of “how do I draw this room in correct perspective?” So, HDTV, DVDs, plugs and wires, pictures on the wall; on the TV’s screen, hint at furniture, a lamp, and the poor girl’s tormentor via reflection. I probably could’ve gone a few steps further with some items on the coffee table (maybe an overturned glass with liquid dripping over the side), but oh well. Overall, I like this background (drawn from scratch with no source) because there is a lot going on in terms of items visible, reflections, shadows, and size-wise everything looks reasonably proportional; everything looks like it occupies 3D space. Not perfect, no. But there’s an attention to detail—to specifics—that’s not usually present in my overly-generic work.

Like Hell Hunter 2, there are some issues with the flow of the image which spawns from the pure spontaniety of the process; although here, I think some subtle work with the shadows let me maintain a decent visual rhythm. Not great, but it doesn’t outright suck either.

Also like Hell Hunter 2, I think this image could have been better served with an extreme high or low angle and rendering the background with two-point perspective instead of one-point (perhaps even tilting the frame to the side). Maybe let the viewer see down a hallway, or out the front door, or into the kitchen or the study and really show a true sense of depth.

Oh well, it’ll give me an excuse to torture some other poor girl ... er, I mean ... never mind.