Context
Despite what the title suggests, a Highguard is basically a giant employed by the city guard. They keep the peace, help citizens when necessary and deal with troublemakers and law-breakers. Although the budget for outfitting and equipping giants is a lot more taxing, the deterrant alone can reduce crime in a district by a significant amount. Even if a criminal dares commit a crime, only the most resourceful individuals can escape a giant whose footspeed is often several times that of a normal man. Highguards are often partnered with one or two normal-sized officers in the event that finesse is required (or the criminal escapes somewhere they cannot reach), but once a criminal is caught by a giant, there is very little in the means to escape.

Process
This one took a long time to do and my first experiment in high-resolution drawing. The source image is 15x15k pixels (imagine the picture you see, but 12x bigger). It really did make my photoshop struggle, even after switching to CS5 midway through. Experimented shading and tinting techniques to try to make the giant look good, but also to make up for my lazy-farticle background ability. I've learned a lot, including maybe using a slightly smaller canvas from now on. Instead of 15x15k I'll try something like 11-12k pixels instead.

• The giant has a name, and potentially a character. The smaller man in blue is just a stand-in
• For the man to be about ankle to shin high, the giant should be 48-96ft tall, or 72ft average. In DnD terms, he's Gargantuan sized.
• The City described is something from a project of mine, a city built from the stone of a mountainside, you can see evidence of this near the back. The city has a very high Giant to Normal population, non-giants give way to giants, not the other way around.