Dune June was a series created by me back in 2021 where I would design a complete painting of a Dune character or story element every single day. This one was for Day #7.
Hey everyone! I am very excited about today's art prompt. Our theme today is traitor. This brings us to the sad story of this character called Wellington Yueh. I knew that designing Yueh would be super challenging for me if I really wanted to send the right message about what I think of this guy... He was a guy who didn't really want to be a traitor to Duke Leto, but he had to do it... Otherwise, it would cost his wife's life, who was imprisoned by the Harkonnens. =( He was a Suk doctor, which means he has conditioned his whole life to support human life at all costs, and because of that he received that black diamond on his forehead. So for this piece, I wanted this painting to show this duality that was going on in his head... In one corner, we have this guy who has decided to betray his superior, save his wife's life, and live forever with these demons of killing Duke Leto inside him. On the other, we have this doctor, sworn never to let a human life be extinguished, but has to choose who is going to die after all.
My thought process:
It all really started with a rough sketch. Yueh was a very internally conflicted character according to Frank Herbert's book. He was extremely ethical, sworn to save lives as a physician, and was even awarded the diamond tattoo on his forehead as the ultimate symbol of his mastery of the healing craft which involved all ethical aspects of being a healer.
When conflicted by the conundrum of betraying his master Duke Leto to save his wife, Yueh was at the same time betraying his own self, his convictions, and yielding all his self-worth. He would potentially be sacrificing countless lives for his selfish gain: Saving one life he deemed worthy above all others - his wife's.
As the saying goes "The eyes are the mirror of the soul" and I wanted his eyes to be lost, wandering desperately at this whole value conflict situation he got himself into. He should look perturbed by his thoughts, trying to figure out a way out where everybody could get away with their lives...A solution that could perhaps mitigate the risks...
And tragically, even this exceptionally smart doctor, of the highest praise in society... could not find a way to save everyone. Would then he be worthy of all the status he received? Did that diamond tattoo really mean anything? Could everything he worked his whole life be nothing but a lie in the ultimate line of events?
I like to think that all these thoughts could have been storming Yueh's mind when I came into the story as this invisible painter who captured his expression right at the moment.
Morals
Storytelling is so important, right? This painting was really a beacon of visual storytelling for me. For most people, a traitor is a traitor. The scum of society. But Frank Herbert made sure we would be in this character's shoes, understanding his perspective of the facts, and feeling deeply how tragic the story of his demise was.
I really would like to inspire you to consider your drawings as magical instruments that are able to bring other people inside the story of characters that are as deep as the actual people around you. Characters with their own personal goals in life, their problems, their internal conflicts, and hopes for a better world. The best villains are those who are tragic. Heroes who made a wrong decision, took the wrong turn and never came back on the right path. Perhaps out of their own stubbornness but perhaps because they didn't have a choice, like Yueh. This is not to redeem the villain from their vile acts, which should be condemned. But to teach us the power of choosing wisely. It is very easy for a hero to become a mere human. And it is scary to consider the frightening ease with which a person can become less than a human...
Choose wisely.
Painting process
As often, I've put together a short (2 minutes) video of my painting process with commentaries, so you guys can follow how I accomplished this painting in Photoshop. I had an absolute blast painting Yueh and it is honestly something that I would like to do more often... Painting characters that I know so much about due to how well their story was put together. Suggestions? 😝
Would be nice to hear more about your favorite book characters and why you like them so much.
Thank you all for sticking around!! Such a pleasure being able to share some of my art with this community! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
Talk to you soon,
Galiant