Sometimes you get the chance to work on something really special. That happened this year for me when I was approached by Isaac Stewart and Brandon Sanderson to paint a couple of the end pages for the upcoming book Oathbringer. It is the third book in the Stormlight Archive. Epic.
The idea behind the paintings was to create in world artifacts, as if these were paintings done long ago by some artist painting the idea of what a herald was. They contain symbolism (more on that in a future post) relevant to the herald’s disciplines and purpose. For todays post, I am going to be somewhat brief and do a follow up post with video of the process, from concept to final paintings.
Here is the herald Vedeledev’Elin, or Vev.
Vedeledev’Elin, oil on linen, 24″x30″ |
The painting is oil on linen and painted at 24″x30″. There is important symbolism in her pose and how she is holding the compass and keys. See if you can guess what it is. 🙂 I’ll be posting the answer to that and more of the symbolism in part 2 of this post as part of a video.
Below is the painting of the king of the heralds, Jezerezeh’Elin, or Jezrien. It was a wonderful challenge to paint his armor and the fabric in oils. The spren, or glowing streaks of light are digital in this image, but the final oil painting includes them and you will see them in the upcoming video. I did them digital for the print version because of a tight deadline.
Jeserezeh’Elin, oil on linen, 24″x30″ |
A small detail I noticed, the series name is actually “Stormlight Archives”, not “Starlight Archives”.
Otherwise, very good article, and I am definitely looking forward to part 2 of the article.
Whoa! I didn't know I can be even more excited about Oathbringer, but I am now!!! These are beautiful! Will they be in hardcover only?
Good catch on the name and thank you! Turns out autocorrect decided to change that for me. 🙂
Beautiful work! Even if yours and Dan's paintings were right next to each other, they work well together … different but still cohesive.
Can we expect the promised part 2 soon? 🙂