We started with a sketch of Narallyndra, with a small magical instrument.  We’ve had an assortment of them shown off over the course of our work with these great artists—her wand is always a bit bigger than you see in most wizard artwork.

After that, June started implementing some color into the artwork.  It’s always interesting seeing the different phases that artists work with, and June’s are always so expressive.

A little bit of extra shading and lighting was added here.  We also shaved down Nara’s ears somewhat.  June primarily does incredible World of Warcraft commissions, but Tellest elves don’t have the striking, long ears that the night elves have.

And here you have it, our final look at Narallyndra.  June did some awesome work with the character, and we couldn’t be happier with it.  I’m very excited to show you more of our collaborations going forward!

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Picking right up where we left off, this is June’s follow-up to the third sketch she made.

As you can see, there are more highlights on the picture, and you can see the textures a little better.  If it was even possible, it’s beginning to look like an even more complete piece.

Even more highlights help to make Jadie’s top and hair pop a little bit more.  At this point, June told me she had to let it “simmer” while she figured out what came next for the piece.  If she had told me it was done, I wouldn’t have had any problems with it.

This was the final version of the piece that June had worked on.  She managed to put together a beautiful portrait of a character that I hope to see a lot more of in the Tellest universe.  Jadie Rivers is an awesome addition to our literary world, and I hope Aaron Canton is proud of her inclusion!

The post Art – Jadie Rivers by June Jenssen Part Two appeared first on Tellest.

We had a chance to do something cool with Aaron’s character recently—something we haven’t done with any of the other non-Michael DeAngelo storytellers.  We worked with June Jenssen again to bring Jadie to life, and she did, in a big way.

As we’re ought to do, we started with a sketch of the character.  I love seeing these pieces come together, and Jadie was already very lively even in this form.

After that first phase, a little color went a long way.  We knew that we wanted Jadie to be a bit on the younger side.  She’s got an innocence that the harsh world of Tellest hasn’t really stolen away yet, though she knows that there are some inevitable truths to it.

Here, we can see the flowers on her bodice and in her hair, and the vines that are creeping out from her sleeve.  Jadie is able to coerce plants to do her bidding—more a plea than a demand.

As we worked our way toward the final piece, you could start to see the character brightened and more detailed.  June took careful time to make sure that we ended up with exactly what we wanted, and even these first few steps made us sure we were going to be fine.

Stay tuned for the second of the two parts in the weeks to come!

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Here’s where we left off:

Of course, a lot changed after that image.  June did an awesome job with the rest of the piece.  Let’s get to it!

We had some need to change certain colors on the character.  We conceptualized Zoe with a more turquoise or teal kind of hue – it made her a little more feminine, yet bold.

The second to last big change was heavy on shading.  June made Zoe look vibrant and energetic, and she really pops now.

Still, as many changes as we went through, nothing could have prepared us for how awesome Zoe looked in her final iteration. June gave us this last piece, and we were floored.  It’s so good!

We’re excited to work with June again.  Cross your fingers that it’s sooner rather than later!

The post Art: Zoe by June Jenssen, Part Two appeared first on Tellest.

Zoe is important to the overall Tellest saga for a few different reasons.  First and foremost, yes, she’s the daughter of a legendary hero.  That hero’s blood means that she’s got a lot of spunk and moxie, but the talent to back it up as well.  She’s also the love interest of a fan favorite, the bulletproof gladiator, David Garus.

Leading into the next big series, she’s going to be playing a much bigger role.  With that in mind, we knew that we needed to get some interpretations of her, and June delivered in a big way.

As always, we were prepared with a sketch of the character.

This particular sketch shows the outfit and the weapon of choice, Zoe’s sai (she has two, but this portrait only shows the one).

After that, June slapped a little bit of color onto the canvas.

The material is starting to come together by this point, and you can see a lot more of the features clearly.

This was the last phase of the work before a big change.  She’s beautifully colored at this point, but we wanted to change from the tint that we had from our reference picture.  At about halfway done, though, June had already made her mark in a big way.

Stay tuned over the next couple weeks for the follow up to this post. 3She did an even more amazing job with the completed image!

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