New Story! The Riddle of the Sphinx, and art! · 9:45pm Jun 16th, 2016
I don't always do my own art -- sometimes I'm in too much of a hurry to get a story published (I'm a slow artist), or I just don't feel I'm skilled enough to tackle a subject with my cheap Wacom. Or, as has happened before, a better artist offers to paint something for me.
But sometimes I get an idea for an illustration that's simple enough to do myself. That's what happened this past weekend!
It was supposed to be an easy delve. In, explore, and out.
Instead Daring Do finds herself wandering through an endless corridor, wishing for nothing more than to see the sky once more. And when she reaches the end of the maze, she discovers something waiting for her that hasn't felt the sun for a long, long time. Something very lonely.
And hungry.
This story originally appeared as The Sphinx in the June Writeoff competition, which just finished. It didn't do so well, but I'm very happy with how the expanded version turned out. It has a few of my favorite things -- fantastic creatures, world building, Daring Do, and difficult choices.
I hope you guys will enjoy it. And if you like the artwork, be sure to comment! I don't get as much feedback on my painting as I do my writing.
Whoa, I didn't realize you'd done the art. Awesome! Really captures the scale and menace of the sphinx.
The sphinx? looks like a massive pony wearing the shards of a golden eggshell to me, while the storms of color on top look psychedelic and mesmerizing. The picture makes me want to read the story and discover the reasoning behind that. I look forward to it!
With the particle effects and the motion blur and the texturing on the headdress and the definition/tone on the body... u wot m8?
Now I'm tempted to commish some
complex and stunningsimple artwork, for no other reason than because CiG can.I actually liked the cover art. Very well detailed.
Good story also.
Why does the sphinx look like Elesh Norn?
PaintOff reviews! let's go!
The chiaroscuro effect is great, especially on Daring. The little lighting effects breezing through the air really add to the mood.
The thick textures are pretty nice, though sometimes I think you get dangerously close to texture overload in your paintings. This one has plenty of variation though, so it works smoothly on the senses.
Background's just flat and blurry. Dull, to be honest. Could've done something with the story's setting.
Verdict: top of my slate, because it's the only entry.
So much better than any of the shit I do, and I'm pretty sure I have more free time to doodle.
That gorgeous piece of work qualifies as simple? The artwork has me intrigued, and the description beneath it has me hooked. Nice work! I wish I could draw half as well as that.
It is a really great piece of cover art. Very striking.
CiG, do you play Magic?
The only issue I have with the picture is that you took a couple sentences to describe the Sphinx's enormous wings in the story and the one in the picture is wingless.
You say it's simple, but you sell yourself short.
The fact you manage to be both a good artist as well as a deeply talented writer is most impressive.
Is that Sphinx Phyrexian by any chance?