New Work: Jesus Defeats Satan

A couple of Friday nights ago, I was walking through the Valley with Brad and Nadia, and we passed a shop that was selling those 3D lenticular pictures, and one of them was Jesus arm-wrestling Satan. It was both one of the most fantastic things I've seen, and truly awful in it's kitschness. If the store was open, I probably would have bought it. But the big problem I had with it was the theology it was expressing, of an equal fight between good and evil, between God and Satan. The fight is over, Satan has lost, so I wanted to do a painting that conveyed that theology, but still was that wonderful mix of awfulness and fantasticalness that the original picture had. These are my first sketches, playing with the idea.

I wasn't quite happy with the first sketch, the one above, so I made it closer to 3/4 profile, and I think that's the pose I'll go for. I'm thinking of having different bodies in the foreground, to represent different heresies or false religions, maybe like Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, and various other Hindu type gods or Buddha, but we'll see. Ooh, controversial!

Updated
Actually, below is the first idea I did, but I did it in another sketchbook, so I forgot about it with the move to the crucified Jesus in the above pictures. The one below is supposed to be in that traditional robed dress that we see in a lot of representations, and which the 3D picture portrayed. I think I'd like to try do both, the robed peaceful Jesus and the loin-clothed, crown of thorns wearing, bloodied Jesus.