Anything that can be said about style is absolutely objectionable and questionable in terms of taste. The only thing I can do is to say a few words about the chromatic and symbolic choices I have made. It doesn’t mean that they should be considered the rule, I am simply sharing with you my thoughts while working on this piece.
Starting from the GW universe gave me the start to try and give a personal interpretation. Using the hooded DA and turn it into a multiple figure made of good and evil seemed a good way to break the symmetry (which helps also in technical terms) and propose on the one hand the fight and on the other the union between the two characters, who seem very much the nemesis of one another, recognized only by small details.
Rather than the colour, it’s the wing that discriminates the devil or the angel, especially in the small parts of the piece, see the shoulder pads or the armour - I needed immediate and very schematic details.
You’ll find this fight-union between the two figures in every part of the armour, and these are matched everywhere though always processed differently. The clash takes place on the armour, where it is very symbolic, on the left shoulder pad and on the front of the standard. I played on asymmetry, as in the rest of the mini: for example, the shoulder pad above the shield bears the reverse image, whereas the other shoulder pad bears essentially the same image as the one of the shield, although in a slightly different pose.
I wanted to create an indefinite sensation: good and evil occupy mirrored positions.
Doing such a miniature has two huge stylistic difficulties: the first is to try and put each ornament so that is looks well where it is, so that it seems part of the armour and not put there at random, the second is the risk of exaggerating with the kitsch. My goal was to maintain a certain "sobriety."
The first way to overcome this problem was to create a balanced geometry to frame each drawing, so that every part would be isolated, but at the same time connected to the context of the piece. It is important that the frame is repeated in a similar way on the whole mini. The fact that every freehand stays within three precise colours (red field, golden trace and black border) and that the golden trace frames every part, on the one hand separates the various components, but on the other gives also the necessary continuity. The eye of the viewer must not wander around at random, and the frame helps to bring the gaze to the drawing without losing the vision of the whole. The geometry is essential to make sure that the whimsical and figurative part is not illogical. It's always a problem of filling the space. If space is filled in a natural way, the eye will be facilitated. If it is filled randomly, the gaze is lost and even the best drawing will be there, but without a reason. The other care was chromatic: I didn’t want to push the colours, I wanted them to remain dull, realistic and very dark. The overall impact should be compact, not too fragmented, even in the hues. That is why I have dirtied it and used grey colours in all compounds. The drawings had to seem years old, even faded by time, part of the uniform. Not something fake. Exaggerating with vivid colours would have transformed everything in a sort of airbrushed helmet…
While painting the piece, I realized soon that in a miniature so full of figurative drawings, painting a figure on the front tabard would immediately burden the piece.
For the tabard I chose the only bright colour in the miniature and painted it as a damask carpet, gold on platinum, choosing for the middle part a dirty white, chromatically close to gold. This focuses the light on the tabard, setting it apart from the other parts. I didn’t want it to look like the armour. So I avoided adding images at the centre. In this way it is set apart from the rest and looks as an ornament and not as the centre of the story.
The back of the standard also breaks the continuity of the drawings by introducing a hybrid figure between a space marine and the angle-demon, which can be identified with that on the left leg. I liked the idea of painting a big bust that would differ a little from the rest. To ensure continuity to the piece, I’ve added the two figures on the columns and the two wings on the frame. The face has been designed as a very schematic skull, then bright eyes have been added because I wanted it to remind of the Space Marines helmets.
The symbols used throughout the mini are elaborations of the cross, the lily and the skull, always different, there is no image equal to another – this is the result of a very specific choice. Besides, I liked the idea of “quoting myself” with the image of the adorned skull, which is in some way similar to that of the Beelakor.
One of the things I paid attention to is the alternating between precise figures and more or less elaborate symbols. Each part has been done with the conscience of which part would stand close to it, no image should be too close to a similar one, no matter how many stylistic changes it contained. I tried to alternate the symbols in this way to avoid the crowding of the figures, and to give them a specific and well-defined space.
Needless to point out, all this talk is very theoretical, but it’s how I have worked. It has nothing to do with the reviews of the final result, which are as always a prerogative of personal taste. But I wanted to share them with you anyway, and I hope that they can be useful to you.