Gooday everyone,
Welcome to the Deacon Corner. If you’re new here, these galleries dive into the inspirations behind the images you’ll find throughout the books posted on these pages. In these issues, I also like to share the commission details for each project, so readers can follow along with how these images came to life.
If there’s a particular piece you’re curious about, you can find all previous issues under my journal entries or linked directly beneath the images within each chapter.
Now before we begin, none of these beautiful art pieces would exist without the incredible talent of Sickjoe who is the creative force behind all the artwork in these books. Quite literally the heart and soul of this visual world. If you appreciate his work as much as I do, I encourage you to visit his gallery and explore more of his stunning creations.
Now, without further ado, let's take a look at the featured image and the commission details below.
This companion piece mirrors the previous daytime scene—same ruined street in Bruma, same gathering of robed scholars standing atop broken masonry and collapsed walkways—but now the setting is night. The city is bathed in the cold, sterile light of St. Iranol, the faint star that floats where a moon should be. No crowd gathers here. The streets are empty, save for the scholars, now unmasked by darkness.
Under the glare of the star, their true forms are revealed. Once-human figures are mid-transformation, limbs bent at impossible angles, faces splitting down the middle to reveal petal-like maws or eyes blooming where mouths should be. One may have vertebrae blooming outward like wings; another’s fingers stretch into tendrils and whip like appendages. Think John Carpenter’s The Thing—grotesque imagery and body horror.
Despite their twisted forms, they continue their sermon, gesturing skyward and muttering sacred verses to an absent audience. Their bodies leak black mucus or translucent ichor that hisses where it touches the street. The light of St. Iranol does not illuminate so much as expose.
This piece should evoke a sense of haunting continuity with the first—same structure, same zeal—but with all pretense burned away.