This is an isterik commission where I was given complete freedom to decide the content of the pic. I love Istvan and Erik so much...they're perfect. My heartfelt thanks to the commissioner for supporting me in drawing them!
Sometimes I think about the description of them in the concept art book...[He wears richly adorned black garments that shimmer in the glow of fire with both majesty and menace.] This description is profoundly poetic. Simply reading it, I can already see the dark, gilded patterns on Istvan's clothing glinting like molten gold in the firelight. By contrast, Erik’s white armor is described as [a stark visual contrast to Istvan’s black], and this pure appearance is interpreted as [an embodiment of the choice that lies before him].
I do not know whether the implication that Erik [still has his whole life ahead of him] is meant to leave narrative space for a potential sequel. Yet from Erik’s own perspective, at least by the end of KCD2, he believes his life is already over. The flames of self-destruction are burning within him in despair. Any attempt to “redeem” him through a conventional arc of repentance or moral cleansing would only diminish what makes this character so compelling.
To claim that Erik ought to turn back is, in effect, to assume that he is walking a fundamentally wrong path. But do his past, his choices, and the totality of his emotions and convictions truly deserve to be negated? His devotion, his loyalty, and his pure, profound love for Istvan transcend the secular world and ascend into the realm of the sacred. Any attempt to shatter such sanctity stems from blindness, if not outright evil.
theartofmadeline
gamechangershow
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
