Cover art concept for my original story X Et Terra.

It’s amazing to me looking back at these older unfinished illustrations how much time I spend rendering when I should have spent it fixing big errors in composition or anatomy… But then again it’s so much easier to see those errors after much time has passed, and you have forgotten what the image was supposed to look like, so you only see what it is. But even that only lasts a split second, before you start remembering the image you had in mind, and then that’s all you see. This is a great exercise– picking up all of these dusty old 90% complete illustrations and putting the finishing touches on. Not that I’m totally pleased with them in the end, but it feels like I’m cleaning out my closet, which is refreshing.

This was a cover idea (why did I make it square???) for a story called Ex Et Terra. Main character at right, called “MC” in the story because… just because. This is his younger self:

MC as a little innocent kid, before everything went to shit.

He is a prince who is placed into an arranged marriage in childhood. During the war, he lets himself become a POW and eventually joins the other side. His bride (girl at left) seeks to get him back.