Mercy me!!!

Since starting work on chapter 4 I've gone back to chapter 3 to make sure I've kept characterisations consistent. One character who I realised I didn't thoroughly flesh out was Maester Arms, Opeel's instructor in the art of endo. He's a rough and tumble military man who wears his hard service across his face, literally. The one benefit to having your eye burned out by R'hezan acid is it can be replaced with a handy thing called a chemitronic eye which allows the viewer to see in temperature.

The next is none other than Mercy Valdein who made an appearance in chapter 2 as the little girl with a big crush on Opeel. As a child she was quite shy but after years of attending military school she's as tough as anyone.

From paper to screen

I posted the sketches earlier, but here's the final product. I added in the 'picture on a table' element at the last minute because the dimensions of the drawing didn't fit properly on the card. But, I think I like it better this way. It gives the whole image depth and makes the illustration pop a lot more. 

Oh, and here's Santa in colour. :)