Third illustration plate for the Hope & Glory projectand third assault on the patience of Angelo Montanini, with questions about his art, his technique and odd curiosities from someone (me) that can't draw to save his life.
1 . this design too became the heart of a novelette and here I really got the impression that you were somehow looking inside my brain. These characters are exactly as I had imagined them. What strikes me is the composition, the spatial relationship between the two characters. Is there a story behind this "snapshot"? What do you imagine is happening between the man and the woman? Or is it just a choice dictated by you wanting to display the costumes at their best?
Certainly the power of the costumes is striking and opulent in this case and wants to show all the economic and political power of the two characters. A Tsar and a Tsarine with a touch of Rasputin.
2 . The Russians will be the main bad guys in the earlier phases of Hope & Glory. And in this image, they are certainly some extraordinarily fascinating bad guys. Someone said bad guys always get the best lines and the best costumes. How did you decide to work to render the hostile personality of the characters?
As I said above, I imagined the boundless power of the new Tsar and at the same time, always fascinated by the Mephistophelean character of Rasputin, I tried to fuse the two traits.
3 . A question about all of your female characters in the Hope & Glory designs. They are always terribly serious, hard, almost looking irritated. Why? Or am I seeing something that is not there?
Here too a certain professional deformation came into play: the top models on the catwalk are aughty and distant, with a look that is almost despising. And I also thing that a woman has always to be on her guard, and keep her distance, even with her looks, even in everyday life..