Cardinal Keith O'Brien

I initially decided to paint Keith O'Brien as the circumstances around him leaving office were quite current, particularly in the context of the Pope deciding to stand down. What struck me as I painted this was that if these Cardinals have power now, then imagine what it might have been like in the Middle Ages when I suspect the cardinals would still have been dressed in the same way and the populace around the would not have been nearly so educated as they are now and the mystique around the written word would have been very powerful. These Cardinals would have been a powerful bunch supported by the might of the church (alluded to in the background) and, of course God!

I struggled with the face on this one, a slightly jokerish outcome, but still humanoid.