"Whispers from Forbidden Earth" by Mark Venturini

Is a tween fantasy novel being released through Helping Hands Press, written by Mark Venturini.  I could try to express how excited I was to get a contact about doing some spot illustrations, but I'd probably fail to do so adequately.  Illustration, especially of fiction, has always been a big influence on my life goals, so the opportunity to do so was A+.

Mark was very clear from the outset that he wanted something in black-and-white as well as something that looked sketchy.  The spots would be at the chapter starts, and they needed to have an edge treatment to match other work he already had.  He's a great client- good communication back and forth, clear wants and direction, succinct suggestions about what would make him happy and open to interpretation and artistic leeway in seeing the job done to both parties satisfaction.

A couple sketches mocked up for the troll at the bridge.  The assignment was a ruined bridge in a meadow at night. The stony troll, wearing simple braes with optional tunic, should hold a magic staff.  In the sketches you can see that I put the bridges over water, which was incorrect.  Mark's troll bridges do not go over water, despite being paths to other places.  I was playing around with where to put the troll so that he would be visible to a reader.  The spots are fairly small, but which side the troll is on commands if he looks ominous or not.

Dark figure in an alley...   This one was pretty quick and simple, the key was making it look properly sketchy and populated while not distracting attention from the figure.  It was also an evening deal, so lighting was tricky.  Thanks to growing up with the Batman Animated Series, I did know that night scenes are lit from the bottom up.

The final on the troll and his bridge (not over water) !   The lights on the far hills are campfires, ostensibly from other trolls and bridges?  Rocks of the fallen bridge dot the meadow grasses.