In the Maze of Masks

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This is one of my favorite images to date.

It began as an experiment with dForce hair and a slightly unusual body position, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the results, so I switched to a short hairstyle. I ‘dressed’ the female figure using the Sentouki Fantasy Warrior outfit, subtracted some pieces of the outfit by setting Cutout Opacity to zero, then added more bits and pieces from other outfits. I regret slightly creating yet another image centered on a heavily-sexualized female figure, but I liked the posture and general effect enough to go ahead with it.

Next, I needed a background. Most of the experiments I tried didn't work, but eventually I got something I liked, based on a line of columns in a South Asian style, taken from the South Asian Temple model. This led the eye toward a point at the back of the image, where there obviously needed to be something, so I added a throne and a large figure. To continue with the loosely Asian theme (very loosely; the columns look to be South Asian Chandela-style, but the female figure is clearly East Asian), I clothed the figure in the remarkable Iron-Fire armor, an impulse sale purchase that I wasn't entirely sure I'd ever find an opportunity to use.

The demonic figure at the back of the scene is lit by a single spotlight. The line of columns, and the bright region at the back leads the eye to that point, which has the useful effect of leading the eye away from the woman. I’m actually pretty pleased with the way it works. It makes the image less overtly cheesecake, because the initial focus of attention isn’t the woman’s buttocks, but the bright patch at the rear of the scene. The woman then becomes a second point of attention as the eye explores the image, and the viewer is as likely to focus on her half-masked face and shoulder as on her under-clothed rear end. Or so I believe.