71. Duke Dantalion (v1 - done)

[akida]

In demonology, Dantalion (or Dantalian) is a powerful Great Duke of Hell, with thirty-six legions of demons under his command; a Jinn, he is the 71st of 72 spirits of Solomon. He teaches all arts and sciences, and also declares the secret counsel of anyone, given that he knows the thoughts of all people and can change them at his will. He can also cause love and show the similitude of any person, show the same by means of a vision, and let them be in any part of the world they will.

He is depicted as a man with many appearances, which means the faces of all men and women. There are also many depictions in which he is said to hold a book in one of his hands:

"The Seventy-first Spirit is Dantalion. He is a Duke Great and Mighty, appearing in the Form of a Man with many Countenances, all Men's and Women's Faces; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one; for he knoweth the Thoughts of all Men and Women, and can change them at his Will. He can cause Love, and show the Similitude of any person, and show the same by a Vision, let them be in what part of the World they Will. He governeth 36 Legions of Spirits; and this is his Seal, which wear thou, etc." - The Lesser Key of Solomon

I won't be able to do much drawing for at least one more week (or two) but I thought to put up some initial thoughts I was having.

I hope to do 3 versions of this demon, I'm saying "hope" because while the first one is pretty much straight forward for me, the other 2 will need a bit of experimenting so the result is not set on stone. The main focus obviously is the many Countenances, which is the main reason I chose this card over others.

For my first version I'm going to run off with a wordplay: Dantalion/Dandelion, even if Dantalion assigned plant is Honeysuckle i so do not care.

Therefore the main inspiration will be this:

sooo... I managed to steal an hour to do a quick explanatory sketch.


I am making him a little boy for this version because obviously little boys are the most wise of all, plus I'm interpenetrating Man as human because Dantalion can take a form of every single human there is and him being a child will give me more space for the head and what's not.

Next there will be thumbs...maybe. I'm thinking of a library or a place with many books, but it could go either way. Good thing with not being able to draw is that you have plenty time to think!

PS. Also it is pretty overwhelming how busy this forum is!

[akida]

Stole couple more hours to draw. Tiny update time!
Soooo... after a bit of sketching, I ended up with two versions I liked the most.



Each has a different "head" placement. it sort of happened this way because i started to think what if his dandelion head wasn't whole, what would happen if someone or something had "blew" some of the fluffy "petals" away and thus I ended up with a version A.

Version B. has him sitting in a chair rather bored (but i do intend to have different expressions for the individual heads) the chair is a placeholder and its perspective is rather wonky... but the more i look at it the more i like it so i might keep the perspective of it "warped"

Version A or version B? That is the question....

Next it's the turn of the "head". After some calculations I suspect I will need around 25-30 individual heads. I'm planning to give them different ethnicity each, although I'm a bit unsure if this will work to my favor color-wise. We will see!

[Novacaptain]

I like B more :)
I think he is otherwise a little like an ordinary kid (except for his head). Having him seated in a large chair or throne, reminds us a little of his importance than if he's just walking down the street somewhere like a regular person going to school/library.

[Alexander]

I think Nova makes a good point about the chair, but aesthetically, I prefer the asymmetry of the cloud in A. Demon in the form of a child is a cool idea though; I like the direction of this.

[darkreaver]

i like the idea of combining the two, with the demon sitting to read, while his heads are blowing away. I'm particularly interested in how you will be positioning and depicting the heads =D

[akida]

I was playing around in photoshop (and the gazillion of head sketches i've accumulated through all these years) i ended up with this little effect and while I still want to make a more orderly arrangement of the heads (still figuring out how) I'm kind of liking it, so I might keep this too!



Nova - I sort of think of him as the ultimate chameleon and manipulator. So i think it's ok for him to be ordinary and inconspicuous, but chairs are fun to draw, especially if it's flying chairs! and him just standing around is perhaps a little bit boring, which brings me to the other thing:

Alexander & darkreaver - I do like the more swooshy arrangement of the head, but all the ideas for it i have so far requires for the card to be turned horizontally and I'm not sure I want that, maybe I just do one separately, because it does offers some interesting possibilities!

So... I think I'm ok with the head placement now and I did some more chairs:



I don't think I'll go for something like B, it's too fancy, but I like A, D and F. High chair head seems to be problematic (see C) as it overshadows the demon's head. I do like the low chair head in E a lot, but not the bottom of it. As for placement: F is more fun, but I think E is interesting too.

[martin]

i really like the placement in (A)
It has a very grounded feel to it. Kind of calmness as contrast to the busy heads.

On the other hand the tilt in (F) is great too. But i think the placement is too centered and kills the dynamics.

I totally agree with our thoughts on the head rest. Overall i like the chair in (F) most.

[Saphire]

I'm a fan of F. I like things that float!
I also think that one is most dynamic and leaves the nicest space around his head. A would be my second favorite.

[oz haver]

C + F?

[darkreaver]

one last consideration for swooshy head? i like to think of it more a diagonal composition, rather than a horizontal one.

http://darkreaver.com/crap/temp.jpg

I do like the idea of a floating chair though. given the importance of the heads, I also agree that a high back chair doesn't seem to work out.

[akida]

And then Dantalion was summoned on the F chair :



I think I'm pretty much done with the first version. I kind of wish the text could be the other way around, the D would fill that corner rather nicely and push the dynamic up, right now it bugs me a little.

martin: I agree about the dynamic, I've made some adjustments and I think it works better now.
darkreaver: aw.... you even did a sketch! Now I will definitely do at least a quick version of the swooshy head!

[mufflekid]

Hmm...I'm thinking the text might look better, design/composition-wise, if it were written much smaller? That way the top-right corner wouldn't feel as crowded, especially since all of the other corners are empty. And/Or maybe just make the capitalized D smaller so it sticks out less.

Also, I can't decide whether it bugs me that the sigil is off center.

Otherwise, I really like how light and clean and airy this feels!

[darkreaver]

haha, don't feel obligated to

i think the text looks fine... it might be possible to add some flourish to the end of the 'n' to modify the composition...but like I said, I don't think it's an issue.

the simplicity adds to the feeling of airiness, looks great! also, finished so fast =0

[doomfulstace]

Simply sublime! I love your idea of using the dandelion, it's really interesting. :)

[Alexander]

I love it! Everything about this illustration feels light. I love that even the rather hefty chair feels light as air, and it's not just because it's floating; the lines (which are, as always exquisite) and limited color pallet really drive it home. I also like his expression, as it's very distinct but still kind of unreadable.

[pixelkitten]

Ooooh so nice! Love it akida

One thing I think could be interesting to see, was a bright color for the sigil linework, an accent color in all the light airiness of the piece

[Noodle!]

Chiming in for the love! Such delicate lines and lovely expression on the character.

[smilingDog]

Really charming lines and pose!

[austin]

I like it a lot!