this was as much a style challenge as a frantic attempt to process the full range of human emotion for me, i wanted to challenge myself to a really limited palette and draw off a simple sillouhette and try to make the piece dynamically interesting still. this is the first time i’ve done colored lineart, and it was really fun! i think it helped everything really stand out, and it provided good contrasrt for the minimal shading.
lines+symbolism breakdown under the cut!
now, onto the ludicrous amount of thought i put into this:
the five of swords as a card represents conflict, disagreements and regret, its mains themes are about winning at a cost, and comes up when youve done what you thought was right or ultimately got what you wanted but ending up hurting yourself or others in the process. it comes up when you need to be told to pick your battles, or when something you did had unforseen consequences. sort of a yeah you did what you wanted, but at what cost, and i picked it bc it really fit the scene that inspired me to make this the best.
i pulled symbolism from the 8 of swords and the 10 of swords as well, because those both fit the emotions of the scene as well, but not quite completely. the stars reflecting off the ring and covering hadrians face are meant to imply the blindfold from the 8 of swords, which represents feeling trapped in a situation or in your own head. more importantly it represents self imposed restrictions and self limiting beliefs, which fits rly well with hadrian as a whole, and especially how he is Right Now.
the four swords in his back were placed there as a reference to the ten of swords. typically in five of swords artwork, the subject will be holding 2 to 3 swords, with the others lying on the ground as they walk away victorious from the battle. however, i really couldnt figure out where i would put all the extra swords and have it make sense composition and symbolism wise, so i mashed the two together bc i also really like 10 of swords for hadrian. the 10 of swords represents painful endings, resisting inevitable endings, betrayals/loss, crisis, and regeneration. invoking the 10 of swords here serves as both foreshadowing for something i know happens at the end of this season, and to represent the betrayal that was yet another chip in hadrians metaphorical armor that is his relationship with samothese
also, its a little hard to tell with the lighting, but his gauntlets are the only part of his armor thats silver. theyre the same color as his sword, and my thoughts are a little jumbled but its along the lines of gold being the color of the sun, and that not being the color he wears on his hands or his blade, which are the parts of him that actually deliver the action. the sun coming throught the stained glass making them look gold is an interesting effect that i didnt intend, but i think it makes the piece more interesting as a whole, something something thinking samothese guides his hands, but ultimately theyre his
and as a reward for reading all of that, heres my lines by themselves, because i really like how they came out
