"Le génie du mal" Study - Al (Patreon)

Welcome to 2020, friendos!✧٩(•́⌄•́๑)

If you've ever googled "hot lucifer art" you've no doubt come across the Le génie du mal, or the Genius of Evil, by Guillaume Geefs. It was commissioned for the St. Paul's Cathedral and placed in the pulpit in 1848:

Fun fact, though - the commission was originally given to Geef's younger brother Joseph, who created  L'ange du mal , a sculpture of Lucifer in a similar pose in 1842: 

Why was it replaced, you may ask? The cathedral administration declared it didn't fit the christian ideals, that "the devil was too sublime", and it distracted the girls who should have been listening to the sermons, so it was removed. Honestly though, they replaced it with a Lucifer that I would argue is even more sublime and distraction-worthy (the little clawed toes, the angst face, the bondage ankle, what's not to love??) but hey, what do I know?

History lesson aside, I love this sculpture and thought it would be a fun to play up all that angst with Al. I'm not the strongest in rendering shadows because I lack the patience to work on a single illustration for too long, but it was a good exercise nonetheless!  (There are 2 sketches in this post - the shaded one is in the image gallery!)