I started this project by searching for the composition that spoke to me. I wanted this to be the first in a series of paintings with iconography from various worlds religions. Having grown up in a Christian family, this seemed like a fitting place to start.

Having found no satisfying composition, I decided to whip out the old faithful golden spiral. By simply overlaying it in different sizes and in different positions in a pattern resembling wings I managed to come up with this layout. It seemed to flow well and have good proportions so I stuck with it.

Using the layout, I began to shape the forms of the figures and the structures of the wings on top of what was essentially a sculptural wire frame.

I played around with the idea of making it flow even more by adding more spiraling structures.

Sticking with the same idea, I added even more spirals and bumped up the contrast.

Feeling like I had lost something that was working I went back to the original color scheme, but decided to keep the spirals.

Here I finally began rendering the final details starting with the figure of the fallen Christ.

By copying and pasting the first drawing of Christ and editing it with the puppet and free transformation tools in Photoshop, I managed to make quick work of the rising Christ. I only needed to draw new hands, edit the hair and add a crown. I also added the burning heart.

Starting by drawing one side of the top of, I simply mirrored it and then duplicated it a few times. This part too was fairly quick to execute.

I decided to go back to the darker higher contrasting version at the end.

This is the cleaned up final version, but having seen the beginning versions, I was left wanting more. Something was still missing. So I decided to continue the push towards a satisfying final work.

I suppose my initial instinct is to just add more complexity and details. I decided to add some flourishes to make the swirls more organic and complex.

I re-rendered the angels and at last decided that this was as satisfying af a composition as I was going to get at this time.

Playing with the hue and saturation and the color balance sliders, I found this interesting color scheme and it stuck. Purple was a good complimentary color to make the gold really pop out.