Midnight's Prince

This is Christopher Carrion, the Prince of Gorgossium. Gorgossium is part of the otherworldly archipelago of Abarat, which contains 25 islands (one for each hour of the day, and one for "time outside of time"). Gorgossium is the perpetually dark island of Midnight.

Carrion himself, the Lord of Midnight, is an intriguing character. He is over six feet tall, has piercing yellow eyes, and a deep, melancholic voice. His skin is a soft yellow-grey. He wears a glass collar around his face, which is filled to the top with a dark fluid. Nightmares flow directly from his mind through tubes in his head and into the fluid. They feed off of others' fear. To other Abaratians he is almost a demonic figure.

Of course, he is terribly misunderstood. I won't give away too much of the plot, but Carrion is comparable to a Phantom of the Opera - type character. He has issues with a woman he loved who didn't return his feelings. Now he is hunting down another girl who he believes can replace her.

I hope that wasn't too spoiler-ish.

In this picture, he is wearing a coat of 'candlemas' skins. The book did not describe what a 'candlemas' looked like, so that was left up to my artistic license. It did say that the skulls of the creatures were arranged in a collar, and that the coat was black and flowing. He is also wearing rings and full-finger sheaths on his middle fingers. The boots are my design (I imagine he would wear something with such cruel heels. They remind me of those mallets you use to tenderize meat before you cook it...).

I tried to imitate the shading techniques of Clive Barker (who has both written and illustrated this book series with beautiful oil-paintings) when I drew this, hence Christopher's yellow skin is shaded with orange, purple, and green. His paintings are very abstract and dreamlike, and they really bring the story of Abarat to life.

Christopher Carrion belongs to Clive Barker. If only I created a character as cool as Carrion...