This painting was begun as a speedpaint while I was attending the Massive Black/Concept Art event in Seattle 2008. It has been worked over so many times it little resembles the original. I have this idea for an angel of fury that is literally an animate explosion. Why would a “living” explosion need a sword? Maybe the sword is the talisman of his power, who knows.

Both the angel and the horse are somewhere between skeleton and flesh, but not zombified. I tried to mix elements of both without becoming either, or just a animated corpse. Minor things, both their noses are skull with skin, but I put flesh where needed to convey emotion or musculature.

I am fond of the dude in the foreground who is amid the detonation, I feel I did a good job with the foreshortening, and especially like the way the hand “blocking” the explosion has Subsurface scattering.

All in all the painting is a little bit muddied, too much detail, dust and shredded stuff makes it read poorly as a small image, but in the end I still enjoy the image and am glad I decided to finish it.