Book Cover challenge at Art Order - WIPS

I've been busy with freelance work recently, so I haven't had a chance to update my blog or to enter many of Jon's weekly challenges over at Art Order the past month or so. One that I missed that I particularly wanted to join was the dragon challenge, as I'm sure that will be spectacular - especially with the guest judges he's got lined up for that.

However, this past week when he posted the book cover challenge, I had to make time! Jon provided some refs, and a basic description of what was to be taking place, and an over lay for working around the book cover copy - the rest is up to the artist. I spent a day or so thinking about what I wanted to do, and finalized the composition in my head on Thursday last week, then set about designing the characters and how they would be positioned and interacting on the cover.

Once I had the basic composition down in gray scale, I started refining the image, beginning with the focal point of the painting and moving out - the rest will come after I've finished the faces to my satisfaction. This is where I will spend probably 90% of my working on the painting, and I won't move on until they look good to me.

One note; after conferring with Jon, I found that Drow (the female character) do not have pupils, their eyes being totally white - so those will be coming out soon, much to my disappointment.

Below are work in progress shots.