Fire in the Rain

It has been a HORRENDOUSLY long time since I posted, friends. I got pregnant last year and have dealt with HORRENDOUS morning sickness, and I've been drained of so much creative energy (and some weight) it's not even funny.

But this last month has been much easier on me. I've continued rewriting Book IV of The Legacy Incarnate, and along the way, God gave me enough inspiration to finally complete the front cover art for Book IV, whenever it comes out.

For awhile now I've had this image of Sabra in my head where it's raining and wherever the rain touches her or even around her, it simply lights on fire due to her magical aura. This was partially inspired by the song "Set Fire to the Rain" by Adele (which song aptly describes the relationship Sabra has had with one of the characters in this story, and no, I did not get the name for Sabra's armor from this fabulous singer). It's also part of Sabra's nature, as she's described as "fire on the water" due to her connection to the divine Moonstone and her role as goddess incarnate.

Now, if you're ready for my speel on the picture's creation process, here we go!

My first "final" outline
of the BIV cover.

Going with the single color palette theme of the Legacy Incarnate covers, I chose black (and white) for this piece, which was what I intended to begin with. Some of you may recall an earlier post where I thought I had at least the outline of the final picture set, but in the end I wasn't satisfied with it.

I did some sketches prior to drawing the official cover just to get Sabra's pose right. At first I was going with something where Sabra seemed introspective, but I decided to go with her looking with sadness at something we as the reader/viewer can't see...at least not yet.

In these sketches I liked the first detail of Sabra's face so much that, after failing to redraw it on the final, I copied and pasted it over to the final instead. Oh the wonders of digital art.

After drawing Sabra's body in the final, I had to cut and paste her body and make it a little more compact, as she's not a tall person, and I was slipping into that old long-bodied drawing habit.

It was a fine balance drawing Sabra in a way that something is keeping her from going up that final step, yet making it look like there's still movement. As you can see in the sketches, I was thinking about making a dramatic sweep of her hair, but since it's raining and the wind isn't blowing very hard, I toned that down a bit. Hopefully it comes across right to the reader.

After fixing Sabra's body, my next big challenge was her armor, Adel. I hadn't done so much detail with her armor on a cover piece since Book I, and even then, this reveals a lot more of the armor than the Book I cover. I've been out of practice drawing Sabra and her armor, but I took my time and tried to make it look right, and I'm pretty satisfied with out it turned out. On a side note, I would love to make a PVC version of Adel's armor to wear, but who knows if I'll ever get around to it.

Partway through the
creation process.

After drawing Adel, and even after a note I made in the sketches, I realized I hadn't thought to put Sabra's dagger on her somewhere. However, at this point I decided it would disrupt the composition of her pose, and it's possibly behind her right hip, as she sometimes slides the sheath around her belt.

After finishing a bunch of shading on Sabra, I added small details like scratches on her armor and rain water dripping from her extremities. I added the fires too.

The background was a bit of a challenge as well. I'm not used to drawing city-scapes, and I need to practice my background drawing in general. However, the rough and vague details of the background contrast nicely with the details of Sabra.

I haven't added the text to this cover yet, and still need to decide on art for the back cover and spine, but I have time, and will update accordingly.

The current collection of completed Legacy Incarnate cover art.

This is the first time I've done a cover art piece for this series that wasn't based off a scene I've already written in the manuscript. I have an idea for the scene, but since I'm rewriting BIV, I haven't gotten to it yet. I already have ideas for the cover art of Book V (which will have a golden/yellow palette), but I'll wait on that for now.