Santi (The Devil's Backbone, 2001)
Watercolor on 8.5 x 11 in. art paper
Created: October 31, 2025
Original and prints available — contact for availability.
Part of the 31 Days of Horror 2025 series
In Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone, Santi is the ghost of a murdered boy — pale, cracked, and forever bleeding from a wound that drifts upward like smoke underwater. This portrait captures the delicate sadness in his face: eyes wide with the quiet knowledge of death, framed by cool blues and faint sepia tones that echo the film’s dusty, war-torn orphanage. It’s not the horror of jumps or screams — it’s the ache of memory, the loneliness of a child caught between worlds.
Fun Facts:
The Devil’s Backbone was del Toro’s follow-up to Cronos and a spiritual companion to Pan’s Labyrinth.
The film’s ghost design, featuring a constant “bleeding drift” effect, was created practically with layered translucent makeup and water tank cinematography.
Santi’s story mirrors Spain’s Civil War trauma — del Toro once called him “a ghost of conscience.”
Behind This Artwork:
I wanted to paint Santi as both apparition and child — fragile, glowing, and suspended in time. The transparency of watercolor felt perfect for him; every brushstroke fades like a whisper. He’s not vengeance or terror — he’s memory made visible. Some ghosts scare you because they hate; Santi haunts because he remembers.
Explore More:
This piece concludes my 31 Days of Horror watercolor series. If you’ve followed along — from grindhouse grit to spectral melancholy — thank you. Horror, to me, isn’t just about fear; it’s about beauty, loss, and the strange poetry that lingers after the lights go out.
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