Mass Effect 3 Teaser Wallpaper

Generally this piece was inspired by the...conversation with Sovereign. Yes, yes in order to create this fan art I had to return to the first part of ME :)
Basically the goal was to create the teaser looking wallpaper where I tried to make Shepard more...human. So looking at his face you can see anger, helplessness, confusion, fear. Whatever he looks at and whatever lies before him is unknown and that is what generates all those emotions he has and eagers the viewer the see it in actual game.
I wanted to put him in a situation where there are no easy choices and he doesn't have ready answers. In my vision Shepard is about to suffer for humanity (but not by dying as that would be too easy). Actually I think it would be cool to have an ending in which there are no decorations, no solemn speeches, no victory celebration(s). Bitter ending where Shepard must sell his soul in some way in order to save humanity (if it is even possible). I guess that would be much more interesting then yet-another-hero-in-galaxy finale. So in this last act the focus is on him since the trilogy is Shepard's story after all.

I also focused on N7 emblem which is dripping with Shepard's blood and rain. I thought of giving it more symbolic suffering and fight meaning.

If you want to you can check out this phenomenal track which helped me to create this artwork. It is called "Ancient City" and was created by Michael Land. It comes from a from breathtaking soundtrack of forgotten game called "The Dig". LINK


As for the technical aspects. A few background elements were overpainted. The image was revised several times as I wasn't content with the final result. One time the artwork looked too corny and had numeous errors, the other time it wasn't appealing enough. I allowed myself to play with an armor and a gun a bit. I thought of a combination between default and collectors' armor. Also the rifle carried by Shepard is running with dirt and mud. Of course a huge number of ME2 screenshots were used as reference as well as some textures to give more believeablitiy. Just like on previous arts I did not use any 3d software neither for modeling Shepard nor for "setting up" the scene.

The original size is over 6000x4000 pixels
This is the fan and"skills-showing" portfolio art, so no copyright infringement was intended.