Aes Sedai: Seaine Herimon, Yukiri, Egwene al'Vere and Saerin Asnobar

SPOILER ALERT!


This is a scene from Towers of Midnight, where Egwene confers with three Aes Sedai atop the Tower. Although it is a blink-and-miss-it, boring scene, I found it quite appealing to me as a testament of loyal, senior Aes Sedai accepting Egwene's authority.

From left to right are, Seaine Herimon, Yukiri and Saerin Asnobar. I wanted to get the ageless look right (unidentifiable age between 25 - 40) in contrast to Egwene's youthful face. Maybe you can zoom in and see if I got some of the agelessness right. Oops, careful the file is big, might get your eyes poked!

Egwene actually is NOT my favorite character. I can simply relate to her more with the experience, status, and over-all character development. Like what Siuan said, I actually don't like her - she reminds me too much of myself!

Seaine Herimon, Yukiri, Egwene al'Vere and Saerin Asnobar

Also, earrings depict nationality! Seaine wears a bull's head design, while Yukiri has thin lacy rose earrings. I was supposed to put leopards in Saerin's earrings, but I found it too cougarish, so I settled for daggers with leopard hilts (not entirely visible). Egwene has reddish eagle earrings, and we all know what that conveys :)

I might release separate portraits of the background characters, as I have their parts complete although made invisible by Egwene's presence. Also, no stole. I kinda forgot about it, but settled with the idea that she doesn't need to wear them all the time - especially in a private windy area :D

Forces of the Light

Having identified my light source (upper right), I proceeded to add more highlights, even ahead of time.
This way, I can see which parts are given focus to when exposed to the light, which of course would lead to either details or corrections. For example is Egwene's (ok, there I identified her) sleeves. The bell sleeves would have to be toned down a bit as they look a little of a cross between candy and silk. Might add some last minute embroidery there.

I wanted the background not too dark, as the scene is in some time later in the day, but with clouds quickly forming to loom over the city. I must admit, I first planned to paint a snapshot of the city, but I'm not too confident with my cityscapes so I didn't go there. Instead, I just added some different hues to the sky, something I haven't done before, and I'm happy it turned out the way I wanted without too much strokes.

I also added a thin darkening of the opposite side of the highlights, which I think makes the effect more realistic.

So far, so good. Still got minute details to do like accessories, hands and maybe embroidery. I thought of having banners in the background so create that dramatic wind, but we'll have to see as I might overdo it.

Aes Sedai Support

Been working on the three background characters for a time now, and I decided to complete each one's figure and clothing, as opposed to them being hidden by the foreground. Also, in the course of using the new style, I found it quite clean - in fact, too clean for my taste. So I roughed it up a bit, added some ruggedness to the characters - especially their hair, after all they're in a windy area.

I couldn't resist adding highlights before hand, just to see where things were going.

Hid the main character for the meantime as I finish off everyone's clothes. While doing so I added highlights putting in mind where the light was coming from. I think it's a little dirtied up now, much to my preference. Will have to see what would happen after I finish the foreground and the background.

Of course no hands yet - I like to put them last :)