Cara Dune Poses Before a Graffiti-Covered Wall — Print & Oil Painting

A character sheet in poster form: a tall frame, the figure in strict profile facing left, the series title set across the bottom in plain white. The whole canvas is lit in one warm gold, and there is no second light source anywhere.

The profile is the argument. She is painted from mid-thigh up, shoulders back and chin level, with bare arms carrying the visible bulk of somebody who does physical work, the deltoid and forearm modelled carefully, a heavy gauntlet clamped over one wrist with a device seated on it. Dark curling hair is pulled back off the face with damp strands loose at the temple, and a small dark marking sits high on the cheek below the eye.

The armour is functional and unglamorous: a segmented dark grey-green torso rig with a high collar, one shoulder guard, and a broad belt across the hips. At the bottom edge of the frame her hands close around the stock and barrel of a large weapon angled up out of shot. Nothing is polished. Everything is scuffed to the same degree.

Behind her the wall does the decorating. It is a mustard-ochre surface covered edge to edge in painted marks: symbols, blocks, handprints and scrawls in rust and brown, with metal panelling and a door frame closing the right side. Held flat and out of focus, it reads as texture rather than as a place, which is exactly what a poster background is for.

Two neighbours in our Star Wars collection: the companion sheet from the same series and the same character painted with the child.