On a Mission

[Image ID] A digital portrait of a female character kneeling on a ledge on the top of a building. It is a moonlit and starry night. Her hair is orange and tied back in a ponytail. She is wearing a dark bodysuit and similar coloured boots.  There are red markings, on her bodysuit, to denote rank. She has a small hand held weapon in her right hand. [description end]

This piece developed from a sketch I did during Inktober 2022 for the prompt ‘ponytail’, and as such that was the starting point for the composition. There were quite a few prompts in last year’s Inktober which I felt were best suited to character illustrations so I used them as inspiration to do various sketches, some quick, some more detailed, of my Candle of Ice characters. This sketch was by far my favourite, and I eventually decided I wanted to progress it into a full digital painting.

The character in this piece, Mikan, was initially chosen for the way she styles her hair, but the rest of the scene inevitably became built around her role and behaviour within the story. Doing this is important to me as I like my illustrations, even when they don’t directly reference the plot, to be a realistic reflection of something the character(s) in them would do.

In this scene she is observing the happenings below from a strategic vantage point, and awaiting the right moment to act.

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Time taken: 5.5 hours

Program: FireAlpaca

Drawing Tablet: Gaomon M106K

Character: Mikan, from my fantasy novel project – Candle Of Ice

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Artwork ©Dragonsflyatsunset 2023, all rights reserved.