The Penance: Graphic novel covers
The Penance is an original graphic novel written by independent filmmaker Sidharth Srinivasan. I worked on the art and had some input on the story creation and narration here and there.
The story is of a modern but dystopian future India, with overtones of cyberpunk and themes of fascism, overpopulation, and the old adage of "be careful what you wish for because you might just get it."
The art was hand-drawn using fineliner and Comic markers, but with grayscale shades added in. Mr. Srinivasan insisted on a black-and-white / grayscale look.
Unfortunately the project is on hold for now, because Mr. Srinivasan had to work on another film (Kriya, which has won many awards and premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in Canada. We might return to it in the future.
There are two covers for the graphic novel, this being one of them. It depicts a massive monolithic complex of low-income housing, formed in the shape of an "Aum." It was quite a challenge coming up with a design like this, with several failed initial attempts. Finally I realized I could blend a brutalist architectural style with strong hints of cyberpunk, and emphasize its monolithic look with geometric straight lines rather than curves, all while making it look like a practical real building constructed with ever-shrinking public spending budgets for low-income housing.
Here's the original rough sketch:
And here's the work-in-progress:
While I'm quite proud of this one, most people find the second cover more appealing and interesting.
This second cover is from a scene that happens later on in the story, where our doomed protagonist journeys deep into the ruins of the Himalayan mountain range to seek out a mystic known for his supernatural powers. The terrifying holy man is emaciated and partly fused into the ice and rock from meditating silently in a forgotten cave for seemingly decades or even centuries. He's surrounded by skulls and bones (including human) and enormous stalagmites and stalactites, including some formed on his own body.
