Ezra Houssay • He/him • Creator of “Inherent Sin”
As is the case with most of my drawings, “Inherent Sin” depicts one of my original characters/stories, Âlèstur from Divine Demon, Fallen Angel. “Inherent Sin” is inspired by a scene from this story I had previously written, specifically the two following lines:
“You are simply sin incarnate, Âlèstur.”
“All because Âlèstur is somehow, inherently, more sinful than Raphael.”
I wanted to build off of this moment to explore contradictory identities through Âlèstur’s relationship to Christianity as a demon kicked from both Heaven and Hell, inspired by my own experiences as a queer trans man growing up Catholic, and play with gender roles and societal standards, once again basing it off my own gender expression. Since I did not want to depict the written text directly, I leaned towards using symbols such as the anatomical heart, which is a motif used repeatedly in DD,FA to represent humanity, and the medieval-style halos. The window behind him is inspired by a window in my village’s church in France.
The actual process for this piece was a simpler one, as I had a clear idea for the drawing from the very start. Focusing on Âlèstur first, I start with a rough sketch, focusing primarily on the pose, then moving on to a second and final sketch, building off of the first. When I designed Âlèstur traditionally, I unified his colour palette by mixing all the colours with a light brown – digitally, this is achieved by tinting all the colours used with his skin tone. Additional lighting, shading, and the background help with this effect.
And thus, “Inherent Sin” was born.
Follow Ezra on his artistic journey! @errorpedia
