After designing Phèdre's marque, the next phase of my painting involves the wall carving in front of Phèdre, where I plan to include a wall carving of Kushiel to ground the temple setting.
But what exactly does the Angel of Punishment look like?
Bronze wings. A haze of red. A whip of fire to punish nations. Kushiel of rod and weal. The Punisher of God never quite gets a detailed description in the series beyond his appearance as a temple statue and the presence Phèdre experiences during her spiritual and physical moments of duress. That's where I get to have a lot of fun as an artist playing around with my own interpretation!
I began by researching how others have rendered Kushiel. There are surprisingly not a lot of fan works involving him. This rendition of Kushiel captures the vibe I get when I read his description. Long haired, dark, beautiful, classical Romanesque clothing, and, of course the three keys to Hell engraved in his belt (Kushiel's symbol as adopted by House Sharizhai):
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| Kushiel Rising by ~XsilverleenX |
I also very much like the idea of Kushiel wearing a bronze mask just as his priests do. The idea of contrasting his angelic nature with his role as a punisher with the donning of a foreboding mask feels right to me.
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| Kushiel by *Winneganfake |
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| My mood board for Kushiel. More on my Pinterest. |
I let all of the imagery that felt right to me simmer in my brain and arrived at this design for the wall panel:
