The Death of Tharalthin: Illustrating The Lay of Merialeth
Behind-the-Scenes: Illustration for The Brothers Krynn's Epic Poem
Greetings! Unofficially, yon seamonster has been nicknamed by me, thanks to a typo, “Artworm, aka Artemus Wormumus.” (It was supposed to just be Artwork, because I was saving a test file of it.)
This is another illustration for
’s epic poem, “The Lay of Merialeth,” specifically Book III: Imprisonment.As you can tell by the title, this image depicts the tragic demise of the great warrior elf, Tharalthin. I was given mostly free artistic rein with the illustration, including with the design of the seamonster. I drew inspiration for “Artemus” from deep sea fish, such as the anglerfish and the fangtooth fish, blending it with the traditional sea-serpent, as well as sharklike elements, such as the dorsal fins and tail. The pupils are much more reptilian or cat-like than the generally round pupils of fish.
As you can see, in the original sketch I created, I had placed Tharalthin on the serpent’s back, testing the image that popped into my head when we first discussed this image, but it was more correct to place him as being attacked to the serpent. To fix this, I simply digitally cut him from his position here, and rearranged him.
The ability to digitally cut and rearrange things is one of my favorite tools! I sometimes wish that Krita included a “magic select” feature similar to that in Paint 3D, which is the program I used to use, but it was also pretty finicky about what it would select.
(This is a tangent, but I wonder if I should put together coloring images to sell digitally? This would not include commissioned images for other authors, such as this image for the Brothers Krynn, but I always wonder if anyone would have fun coloring some of the images I’ve drawn. Let me know what you think!)
Speaking of colors, unusually, I didn’t pull colors from reference photos, instead playing around with them until I found colors that seemed to work. Yes, I did make Tharalthin’s costume combine green and blue. I think the muted shades blend fairly well, though I know many people tend to consider green and blue as clashing (unless they have a similar green, or blue, undertone.)
While I didn’t use the vibrant jewel tones here, for fun, allow me to present a counterargument:
So by all means, if you can do it aesthetically, throw whatever shade of blue you want with whatever shade of green! What’s your opinion on the color combination? I’d like to know!
Finally, since I’m always a bit intimidated by depicting seafoam, I decided to give it a bit of an art nouveau twist with a lace-like pattern, which I’m pretty happy with! I was thinking originally of this image (this is not art nouveau, however), which many of you probably know: “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” I didn’t do this intentionally, but I loosely mirrored this wave in the detailing on Tharalthin’s boots in the sketch, overall giving his textiles a series of tattered seafoam and wave-like designs. I personally have thought about making a dress based off this beautiful image, so I am happy to have drawn inspiration from it again!
Thank you for reading! If you’re looking for artwork similar to the style I create, feel free to reach out at stellamarisdesigns.banter284@passfwd.com! (I know it’s an odd email, I utilize Protonmail’s aliases so I don’t need to worry about my personal addresses.) I’m working differently with my prices than what I originally posted, so at the moment, it’s best to discuss the project and work from there.
Please let me know, too, if there are any Catholic artworks you might be searching for, and I may add them to my to-do list. I have some I hope to work on once I get a few pieces done!
God bless!
Thank you for reading Stella Maris Designs! If you’d like to support a Catholic artist and writer who believes in using her talents to honor God and create artwork that is good and beautiful, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, or buying me a pink lemonade for me to pair with some carrot cake!
If you’d otherwise like to support Stella Maris Designs, please subscribe and share with your friends, or take a look at Stella Maris’ storefronts. Thank you!