Redux: Forbidden

Redux redux 0

What you see above is the original version of my artwork concept now known as “Forbidden Liaison”. The original artwork was created in 2009 and was originally entitled “We Shouldn’t”. The main theme of this artwork is the forbidden love/lust between a medieval queen and a commoner (originally a knight, later a hunter). I wanted to show the man wanting to continue their tryst while the queen is trying to be more cautious as they meet in the castle.

Read on to see exactly how this artwork has evolved over the years as I tried to perfect it. To see the most recent and/or final redux of this artwork, see here: Forbidden Liaison

Here is what I wrote about the original “We Shouldn’t” back on February 04, 2009:

I saw a painting somewhere of the forbidden love between Guinevere and Lancelot of the King Arthur myths and it moved me to make this.

Below you can see a comparison between my original “We Shouldn’t” and the first redux I created of it in 2011 when I renamed the artwork “Forbidden”. As you can see, I zoomed in the camera to make it more of a portrait while also changing the light setup and enhancing the scene’s colors. I also slightly altered the poses of both figures and fixed the shaping/morphs of the red gown. I changed the background by creating a heavily blurred effect (due to depth of field to put more focus on the figures).

Although I liked the improved 2011 redux, it still had its problems. The most important problem was that it unintentionally almost makes it look like Lancelot is being forceful with Guinevere and that she does not appear to be a consenting partner. I illustrated her reluctance as too severe. I fixed this for the next redux in 2013.

In the comparison below you can see my 2011 redux and my 2013 redux. In addition to changing the poses to make it look far more “consensual”, I also changed her expression to look less frightened and more lovelorn. I changed the light setup again, this time to an improved IDL setup. I also completely changed the setting to a decorated castle interior room. I reworked her gown again to make it appear to drape more realistically and gracefully while smoothing out errors and poke-throughs. To make the gown look its best, I had to delete her ornate belt. My abilities to postwork artworks had also improved significantly from 2011 to 2013.

I really loved the 2013 version and it held up for several years as I didn’t think I could do any better for quite some time. Then, in 2020, I finally decided to give it another try to see if I could outdo my 2013 redux with a brand new redux with brand new models and a completely brand new scene.

In the comparison below you can see my 2013 redux and the perhaps final 2020 redux. This time I replaced the outdated Victoria and Michael base models with La Femme and L’Homme base models and rendered it in the new Superfly render engine. I created a brand new pose and use all new clothing including a dynamic cloth gown. This time, I believe the pose truly shows the queen being “in control” of the situation as she calms the lovelorn hunter. It took me eleven years, but I think I finally got it right! I was going to use depth of field on the background but I wanted to make sure you could tell they are in the throneroom of a castle rather than just in any blurry old room.