About a month or so ago, I talked into letting me do a faerie portrait of his mate's character Ariyah. This is the result of that, and I really have to say, I think I outdid myself this time. ;)

The image in the middle is on a piece of 9"x12" paper....after completing the initial sketch, I realized the commission size was supposed to be 11"x14". Not wanting to completely start over, I decided to do a really intricate knotwork border on a piece of 11"x14", and simply paste the first image on top of it.

The knotwork was....a handfull. lol I do have a template that I use (yes, I did hand-draw it though) to trace a section of knotwork over and over, which helps, but the whole border itself took a considerable amount of time. Though I think the effect was well worth all the work. :)

I finished the border and then did the coloring for the main piece on a different day. I was lucky enough to have input for ideas from both the commissioner and his mate during the coloring process...in fact, the wings looking like a sunset was her idea. :)

Also...you can't really see it through the scan, but she has more stars on her fur and wings that were done with a silver gel pen. The effect is that you don't really see them until the light hits the image just right, at which point you'll see a flash of stars and the radial pattern on her right arm. Its really quite neat. ^.^

Ariyah is © as commissioned by
<3