Malenia Blade of Scarlet Resolve — Print & Oil Painting

The helm is the entire design solved in one object. A gold and verdigris shell that comes down over the eyes and stops at the cheekbone, its crown ridged into a comb of narrow vanes, a small skull set at the front, two feathered wings sweeping out and back from the temples. Sight has been traded away for it and only the mouth is left free.

Below that, bare shoulders and chest, with a heavy cloak of deep red and a thick white fur collar thrown over them. The contrast between polished metal, fur and skin is what the painting is really about, and each of the three has been given a completely different surface treatment.

Both hands, and they are hands of flesh, are closed round a straight sword held vertically in front of the body with the point down. The grip is bound in cord, the pommel is a plain gold ring, and the posture belongs to a vigil rather than to a fight.

Around all of it the ground is smoke: dark grey-green, worked wet, with orange embers rising through and a smear of red hair blown out to the right. Worth noting that this reading keeps both limbs whole, where the rest of the collection gives the same winged helm to a body built partly out of gold. Part of our Elden Ring collection, alongside the frontal portrait with its gold arm and the figure at the edge of the dark.