Hammeln

More watercolours tonight. My mother has come home for the holidays and set up her own workspace in the living room, which made me realise the light there is infinitely better than the one in my room. So I joined her and painted this:

Reference is from National Geographic.

Calton Hill

A small watercolour piece I made in mid-November as a birthday present for a friend. She likes green and greenery, which is something I learned to appreciate very much while painting this: green is so restful to work with! It's almost like eye-food, or something. :)

It was referenced from a photo I took in Edinburgh in 2009, at a very lovely spot on the north side of Calton Hill. The bright sunshine was a bit of a rarity...

I wish I could have made a contrast as stark as the one in the photo! But I was fearful of botching the picture. I should have been more bold; but then again I know I don't control the medium very well, and I would have botched it. :}

Zeitgeist illustrations

I got the green light to post the illustrations I was commissioned to do for Zeitgeist: The Gears of Revolution, a series of D&D adventures published by EN World. The adventure these are in will be out sometime in early January.

1. Dr. Xandria Meredith, Archeologist and Adventurer:

She is meant to be a redhead, cute but smart and with an explorer's physique.The background was to be 'bright and academic', so I happily slapped the National Library of Athens in it, slightly changed to fit the composition - though residents of Athens recognise it at once! :)

2. Path to Ruins:

The description called for a rainy grey swamp, with a ziggurat barely visible in the distance, and a path towards it outlined by scraps of golden-orange cloth tied to tree barks.

3. Marsh Mummy:

A mummified corpse, to be exact, hanging from a spear trap from the wall. I don't really understand how a corpse can possibly mummify in a damp environment (unless it's inside a peat bog), but oh, well. :) The glittering necklace was a key point.

Also, here are the early stages of the above. I normally work very haphazardly (as seen in the early swamp image), but I tried a more structured approach for the mummy, and I completely went out of my way with a detailed line art drawing (which is something I never do) for Xandria.