STRIVE: Sun’s Chosen
Featured from “SYNDICATE XVI” 2025 Illustration MFA Visual Thesis Exhibition, FIT
The Acolyte Faction was another group that was certain to me: a religious faction that worships something very real, the Sun. In my mind when I was thinking who would comprise this devout group, I thought of my cats always finding the tiniest spot of sunlight to lay in. Cats, lizard folk, average humans and anyone else who valued the life the Sun’s light gives. So when it came to creating a leader, I wanted to challenge myself to illustrate a lizardfolk (something I had never done before) and make him a bit ironic. His white, iridescent scales constantly reflecting the Sun’s light was a wordless display of worship that I thought was very clever way to claim power for a zealot.
He was featured in the “SYNDICATE XVI” 2025 Illustration MFA Visual Thesis Exhibition.
Medium: Digital, Photoshop.
Process: The final digital piece came together from a digital sketch into a loose render in grayscale which gets multiple layers of gradient maps and overlays to get a sense of mood and color. Everything gets merged into one layer before focusing on the final render pass.
Sketch
Card