NOTE: As with the other piece, the original looks a thousand times better than the scan! The yellows are more yellow than orange, more details are visible, and the weird streak on the image is from the scanner bed.


An extremely epic piece of "Hunchback of Notre Dame" fanart, OMG. I got the idea to draw this after working on "Flames of Desire" ([link]), another fanart piece. But this time I wanted to incorporate Frollo in all his torment. So here we have Fire Esmeralda approaching him, burning the scarf Frollo holds in half and singing bits of his robe, wispy flames dancing around him. I wanted this to be uber symbolic and also have fun with details. I also wanted to imitate the animation style from the film as close as possible, and was lucky to have markers (yes, this whole thing is done with MARKERS!) that worked okay, ink-wise.

Fire Esmeralda was, of course, loads of fun to do. I made the flames more extravagant than my last image, with added red to show the intensity and also further shape her details. In this image, I did something, erm, different, and had Fire Esmeralda be partially nude. You can see evidence of her festival outfit, but certain parts of her body are not "clothed". I did this to symbolize Frollo's lust for Esmeralda, thinking that maybe, yes, he'd, erm, imagine her this way.

But even though he's got a hot (no pun intended!) chick before him, Frollo's expression betrays fear. Although he does lust after Esmeralda, he also knows it is wrong and believes it the act of witchcraft, and therefore an evil thing, which also goes against his religious beliefs (if you can say he has any). He fears this feeling will consume him, burning inside of him like a flame. To symbolize the destructive quality of his lust, I made Fire Esmeralda's flames catch fire on Frollo's robe, burn Esmeralda's scarf in half, and have the flames start to encircle him. Then there is the background, composed of black, red, and other fiery hues.

Speaking of the background, the colors were a product of a lot of markers and a changing mindset. At first I did a deep, faded blue behind Frollo, with yellows and oranges on Fire Esmeralda's side, but as I worked more on the piece and had a more developed vision of what I wanted to portray, the red on Fire Esmeralda's side took over Frollo's blue and more black and brown was added to the edges of both sides. Red, of course, symbolizes love, passion, hatred, anger, and fire, all qualities that hold true to this piece. Frollo, in a way, loves Esmeralda, but he also wants to kill her (that is, if she won't accept to be his and his alone).

Overall, this was super-fun and challenging to work on! I worked on most of it while at school, and even had a guy in my English class, who walked by my desk, utter "Holy sh!t!" at the mere sight of the drawing. I feel very proud of this piece.

Frollo's gonna burn . . . IN HELL!