Lyraina

*cough cough* And I thought everyone forgot about his old and abandoned project

Samaldin: Good point. Could definitely make a nice mural or something. Kurkistan: How could I have missed that! Thanks!

Hi everyone! First of all, I hope this is the right sub-forum… I am currently visualizing the environments of The Emperor’s Soul, as a base for my next portfolio project. More specifically, I am starting with Shai’s Room(s), Shai’s Wing of the Palace, and the Emperor’s quarters/wing (more to come!). Also vases/urns and other artifacts that are mentioned in the novella. Here’s my problem. I found a visual style to work with (heavily inspired by Asian architecture of course), but the details are giving me problems. I am working of descriptions like these: I have pretty good references what reliefs and inlays in Temples/Palaces can look like (see attachments), but I do not want to just take images of Chinese patterns, dragon reliefs and folklore and put them on the hallways and urns for TES. I would really like the designs to fit the world. But I am also at a loss what kind of imagery would be used in the Rose Empire (except for a phoenix headbord bed), as the novella doesn’t mention too many (visual) things other than the main plotline. So that’s where I would really appreciate your help! It has been a long time since I read Elantris, but if I understand it correctly, Elantris and Rose Empire don’t really share much other than being on the same world. Would the Anchient Lamio / Rose Empire people integrate Aons in their art and designs? There are hills in the city, and (I think) mountains nearby. That’s a starting point for what people might base their decorations on. But it’s also not really unique to Sanderson’s worlds. I’m a bit at a loss here, and if I can find nothing else, I’ll make up something myself to make it look more than a real world mashup of Chinese Architecture. But if you can help me brainstorm something that would fit the Cosmere, I would appreciate it a lot. What do you imagine the reliefs, inlays, and artifacts/urns and other decorations would depict in the setting of TES?

Wow, thanks so much! I don't really want to get rid of her feet, because in my mind it makes sense for her to have them even if she's zipping around and not walking - she gives herself a face and hair etc without needing them, so why not feet, too? An imaginary's character imaginary character, haha Your post actually gave me the idea to add a bit of motion blur. Not too much though, while that would look cool, it gets a bit too blurry and distracting for my liking. Thank you. I'm glad if I can actually match someone's mental picture 'cause that is reaaally hard and doesn't happen too often. Thank you! I think I'll wrap this one up now, unless I'll find something else to change last minute. On a side note, does anyone have a good source where I could find descriptions of Roshar's geographical areas? The wikipedia's I've checked are not really helpful nor is my memory, but I'm not sure if that is because I didn't find the right source, or if there is just not very much explanation in the books yet, aside from areas our main characters have visited more frequently.

Thank you for the feedback, guys! I agree that it is a lot more in character for Syl to look mischivous or cheerful (and also youthful), so I changed her face a bit. Since I am painting Kaladin with a quite sinister expression, I don't want to give her too big a grin though because I feel like that wouldn't fit together (she doesn't like him to be unhappy after all). I also made her more translucent (esp. the feet) and a bit more airy. Thank you, glad you like the fairy dust. I was a bit afraid that this is too much glitter Fifty percent is a bit much I think, she would look more grey than made of light then. But I made her a bit more translucent. Thank you! Haha, don't worry about giving me critique! I'm really grateful for any input, both on the technical/art side as well as content wise. There's just so much in the books that I'm pretty sure I'm missing a lot of details. I'm not too fond of the heavy use of smoke brushes in the photo you posted but I agree that it does look quite like the dress would fit Syl! "transparent enough to reveal that there is something behind her, but not enough so that you can determine what it is" actually is put very nicely. I tried to stick to that, although it's a bit hard with all the dress stuff going on, and since I want the face to be visible. It works with the arm though, I think. Here is the current version, I want to fix some things on Kaladin and add some rain next.

Thanks again for all the comments! GreyPilgrim: Haha, thank you - I guess not everybody would appreciate that Michael Whelan is amazing! Mailliw73: Yeah, I think that is actually closer to how they would look. Certainly closer to how they are illustrated in the novel. I imagine them a lot less colorful though, more dark/grey/greenish and with more loose stuff lying around, not so 'clean'. Might depend on where you are and how long it's been since the last flood though. Curiosity, thank you very much! Chrono: Thank you! Working on it! Here's a part of the next piece I'm working on. What do you think of Syl? Is she too ... "heavy"? I imagine her as a very tiny & fragile creature, not sure if I am conveying that yet. Maybe a bit thinner and more translucent might help...

Thanks again guys! Regarding the chasms - I myself depict them with more stone surface, and less vegetation as well - especially lower parts that get flooded more often. I don't think the vegetation I painted would do very well with heavy flood rushing through. In the beginning when we experience them in a dark and oppressing way, I didn't imagine there to be much vegetation at all - that only happened much later when it gets described as having beauty as well. (Trying to stay vague here because of spoilers ) If I can find the time, I would like to do a more realistic version later on, but then again, there's already some official art for that. Leaving for vacation now, more replies when I'm back!

Now that you mention it, this was of course absolutely what I intended to convey Next portait will take a while, but here's a small interlude. I wanted to try out a new technique (using micro scale photo textures to depict something of a bigger scale), and thought that would be a good opportunity to paint the chasms. I didn't follow the description too closely, so this is probably some passage that doesn't get flooded very often (but still is quite high - I think most of them aren't that huge?). I was very impressed by how differently I perceived the chasms from the moment when someone mentioned that they are actually quite interesting (scientifically) and also beautiful.

That’s cool! I love how you gave each of them their own attitude and really showed their character - I can very well imagine all of those in one room, bickering over politics. I second ‚Loki as Sadeas‘ as someone suggested - but your depiction reminds me of Snape, which would be equally fitting! Love all the details on their clothing

With all those kind words I am dearly missing a blushing smiley! Thanks a lot! That piece was an experiment, but I liked how it turned out Hmm persian, now that's a keyword I didn't use when looking up references. I was using a mix of asian, hawaiian, and east-india from ...bits and pieces of Brandon interviews I think, but in the end I was like "okay whatever, she's tan, so lets not make her too light" As for Rock - I am still working on my conception of his people eating hornets because of a stupid misreading I did at the beginning About the hair, I really missed the part that she curls it - I read that as "she pins it up, but if she wouldn't, then it would fall down as long as Shallan's". My bad! Thanks so much The next character is indeed male. I hope I won't disappoint because I'm very bad at paintings guys! Don't worry, I'm not discouraged, I'm happy to hear all the different opinions on my depictions I think it's really interesting to talk about that, although it makes it kind of terrifying posting the images here! (Will still do so!) I see what you mean with the creepyness, I think it is because of the comparably broad smile, which doesn't really reach her eyes because then it didn't look asian anymore, or she started looking too old because of the wrinkles. I repainted those parts several times until I decided to move on, but I agree that she does look somewhat creepy (and not as pretty as I would like her to be). Thank you very much!

Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys! Argent: Alright, will post some if I have more. Aleksiel: Yeah, that is always a big issue, and a reason why I was a bit hesitant/nervous to even post here, because everybody pictures characters in very different ways. This is especially true as I myself most of the time don't even have a clear picture of the figures in my head, but I 'feel' the characters. Swimmingly: Thank you, not grouchy at all! I appreciate the feedback, have been practicing arms lately.. need to do more, they just have so many curves that one can get wrong! Chrono: Thanks - I was really unsure about what is usually referred to as "tan" skin. I was thinking of a naturally darker shade because I thought it is more than just "sun tanned" - might have overdone it a little out of fear of making her to pale! I'll try to do better with future Alethi portraits. The hair thing confuses me though, you're the second one to mention that - I was so sure that she is described with curls that I didn't even look up more than one description. In my notes, it says this: "She wore part of it up, wrapped around a small, scroll-shaped golden ornament with two long hairpins holding it in place. The rest tumbled down behind her neck in small, tight curls. Even twisted and curled as it was, it came down to Jasnah’s shoulders—if left unbound, it would be as long as Shallan’s hair, reaching past the middle of her back." Does she have a hair straightening fabrial maybe? But well, at least that gives me an excuse to do another portrait of her later on Delightful: Thanks a lot Chaos: Thank you, feel free to feature it, I feel very honored! Atilium: Yeah, it looks like I messed up the hair. I would actually have preferred to give her straight hair. Next time! Glad you like the soulcaster MozytheHealer: Very happy that you like the face structure - I'm not too good with freehanding those kind of things, but really wanted to get the "squarish face and discriminating pale violet eyes" across. Oooh cosplay .. I remember seeing your images over at deviantart! You have very beautiful black Jasnah hair Zea mays: Thank you!

Hi! I've been posting some Stormlight Archive fanart on my blog and on deviantart, where I then was encouraged to come and post it here as well (where I was so far only lurking and silently reading without an account). So here I am! I wanted to work on my portrait painting skills, so I decided to paint some of my favourite characters of my favourite series - not only incorporating the visual descriptions, but also mood, and the way I feel about the characters. Quite a challenge for me, but also a very enjoyable project so far I appreciate any feedback, both on technical aspects as well as if I get some of the visual depictions wrong. I will update this thread when I have more, although that will probably take some time as I can only work on those in my spare time between studies and client work. Are you interested in seeing work in progress pieces as well? Thank you for looking, hope you enjoy! Lyra --- My interpretation of Shallan, as I see her in The Way of Kings. While Shallan has some very dark sides to her personality (and past), she is very good at hiding those – and I also think that a certain amount of cheerfulness is part of her as well. This is the side I wanted to portray here, the joy she feels when studying, observing, researching. It was so hard to get her eyes right - kind of asian and still blue - and I'm still not 100% satisfied with the result... Here is a closeup: link Jasnah: