Radiance

"Thus each sunrise found her less pale, calmer, and breathing more freely. In proportion, as her internal wounds healed, grace and beauty bloomed again on her countenance, but more retiring and composed. Her former character also returned - something even of her gaiety, her pretty pout, the fondness for her goat, her love of singing, her feminine bashfulness... When her thoughs of Phoebus allowed her leisure, the gypsy-girl sometimes thought of Quasimodo. He was the only link, the only means of communication with mankind, with the living, that remained to her. Poor child! she was even more out of the world than Quasimodo himself. She knew not what to make of the strange friend whom chance had given her."

- Book VII, pt. IV
'Earthenware and Crystal'
Notre Dame de Paris
Victor Hugo

Quasimodo and Esmeralda in the cathedral. Heavily based on the french musical - Quasimodo's basically a carbon copy of Garou's performance, costume and all - though I tweaked Esmeralda a lot, so she's the way I first pictured her when I read the book. She's probably thinking about Phoebus right now, the silly chit.

This is my first entirely digital full painting, and also one of my first major experiments with light and shadow. In my head, I'd planned a starker contrast between the light falling on Esmeralda, which just touches Quasimodo, and the shadows surrounding him, but I still like how the symbolism came out.

Warning: HUGE file size.
everything (c) Victor Hugo