Newsweek approached me to make a cover image for their article about a lurid sex scandal with a lying altar boy at the center of the story. It was decided that a porcelain figurine altered ever so slightly to match the content of the text was needed.
Detail of the head showing the geometry and painting style created using zbrush.
The figurine was composed of different parts (seen in different colors on the left)
Importing the model into Maxwell Render for the final render. Note the floating square over the figurine's head. This is a light source that is later hidden from the camera.
With such a small depth of field, the nose was very blurry. To fix this, I had to bend the nose so it was in the camera's focus zone. This way, it was sharper and worked better for the cover design. From the final camera angle, the nose looks straight. An optical illusion.
The floating rectangles are the 3 lights used in this scene.
3 lights were used to make this scene. I prefer using very simple lighting whenever possible.
Final cover image. Robert Priest ingeniously designed the altar boy's nose
to penetrate the letter "c".