"Yes, Daroga... I felt her tears flow on my forehead...on mine, mine! ...They were soft...they were sweet!....They trickled under my mask... they mingled with the tears in my own eyes...they flowed between my lips...Listen, Daroga, listen to what I did...I tore off my mask so as not to lose one of her tears...and she did not run away! And she did not die! She remained alive, weeping over me, with me. We cried together! I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer..."

--Le Fantôme de L'Opéra by Gaston Leroux, de Mattos translation.


This is for the Scenes of Leroux contest on PFn [link] in which entrants must choose a line from Leroux and illustrate it as though making an illustration for a book.

My idea: Use the tearjerking "mingling of tears" scene at the end of the novel, and illustrate it like a classic storybook or fairy tale, complete with a border, a chapter title at the bottom, and various elements relating to the story in the border itself.

Erik and Christine mirror one another always--from their beginning (literal mirror) to their tragic end. I wanted to show that, and it's incorporated in their clothing (Erik's tails and Christine's bow, also their light/dark complementary look) and, obviously, in the symbolic border.

Since I was unhappy with the painted version of the center, I combined the original sketch with the painted border. When I'm not on a deadline, I plan to fix the sloppiness of the edges...

UPDATE 8/27/05: This drawing won first place in the Illustrate Leroux Contest! *is thrilled* I can't believe it. There were so many other ones that were better than mine. o_o;; But hey, I'm not fighting it!