Beyond the Barricade

Marking the occasion of France passing the bill legalising same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption.

The finale piece from Claude-Michel Schönberg's musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel is one of my favourite pieces (how groundbreaking, a gay guy who likes musical numbers!), and the lyrics are especially applicable to the LGBT community, not only in their struggle against those who would willingly and deliberately oppress them... but their fight for a better world which will come when "tomorrow" comes.

I cheated a little with the creation of this piece, using the LiveTrace function to convert it from something analogous to a photograph to a slightly abstracted vector... normally I'm not a fan of this because 90% someone does it to lazily pass off a piece as "painted", or "pencilled"... but I admit to the option because my preferred method wouldn't have let me get it done in time. Had I had more time to prepare (and I may still do it in the future) I would've made the piece look like an etching, much like how young Cosette is depicted in most of the promotional material.

"Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!"

"Finale", from Les Misérables