Lyla Brenna is an interesting warrior.  Her home was overrun by another country, and she was drafted into their army.  In time, she demonstrated her value to them as both a competent fighter, and as a capable spy.  When she meets Kaos Kreegan, though, she’s unprepared for her heart to win over her sensibilities.

This is one of the sketches we passed on.  I feel like we could have pushed for this one though, and it would have made for an awesome book cover down the line.

We also passed on this one.  It looks great, but the winner that RedPear served up for us was spectacular.

This one just seemed so much more evocative for some reason. Whether it was because of the sword, the armor or her seductive gaze, we knew we had our winner.

Lyla is one of those characters who you just can’t help but enjoy reading about.  She’s capable in a world filled with powered individuals, and she’s not hindered by love, but bolstered by it.  It’s an interesting thing that you don’t see too much in fiction.

And here you go, our final look at RedPear’s Lyla.  I love the pattern of her armor, and again, she captures so much emotion in that gaze. We look forward to bringing you another RedPear art piece at the end of next month.  Stay tuned!

The post Character Art – Lyla appeared first on Tellest.

Lyla is a character who wasn’t introduced until the second novel, As Darkness Falls, and she really didn’t show up in any of the novellas either.  She’s an important character nonetheless.

As always, we began with something a little basic.  This is the pencil drawing of Lyla that John started with (I touched up for the sake of visibility).

Here we have more functional lineart of the warrior from Saveon.  You can see here her level of confidence.  Trained not only in swordplay but also in archery, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

After that, John added some flat colors to the character.  It’s so funny how this part of the process always looks so drastically different from the final.  I had to make sure he didn’t make her a redhead, but he assured me that wouldn’t be anything worth worrying about.

And here you have it: the final part of the process.  Lyla doesn’t have any superpowers or magical ability.  The only thing that she can rely on is her courage, compassion and prowess.  She makes for a delightful character, and I’m happy to have the artwork for her now!

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