The Plan Unfolding On The Go

Greetings, fellow sentient beings!

I wouldn't say I'm truly proficient with watercolor by I do enjoy it a lot. And I've got some illustrations planned but not...quite planned. I guess most people who can actually paint have their artworks visualized in their minds before they start painting. I'm not there yet. I have some vague idea but I get to visualize the end goal as I paint and as I see shapes unfold.

I guess that's more like my photographer's approach. To see things for what they could be, to recognize patterns and to develop them through imagination...After I've "seen" them.

I was splashing some blue and greenish color before I finally got to the stage where the Frost Giant Fortress finally revealed itself to me as I shall try to complete it. Here's a rough sketch upon the scanned watercolor.

Except the Keep itself won't be that simple, I'd like to make it more like a citadel of naturally shaped ice. It might resemble the movie version of Minas Morgul but it has to be more icy than eldritch in texture.

It was after I got to these blobs when I saw the possibility of bridges connecting the fortress to icebergs on both sides. Some reflections in the foreground, some mountains in the background, perhaps some aurora in the sky...

This is how the initial watercolor sketch looks without the mouse-painted black lines:

I hope I can complete it well enough for it to be actually usable.

But in any case, having the vision is a step complete already.

This is work in process, and it's being done for the Western Shores board game project of which you can learn more by visiting the @thewesternshores account. Working hard on the illustration phase. Roughly half of the 60-ish illustrations are done, mostly by @silver.art.

Here's what we've got digitalized on NFTshowroom already:

Valkyrie by @silver.art;

Raven Herald by @silver.art;

Polar Hunterby @silver.art;

Frozen Mammoth by @silver.art;

Temptress by @silver.art;

Jormungandr, The Sea Dragon by @silver.art;

Dragon of the Woods by @silver.art;

Quiet Inlet by @manoldonchev;

Frost Giant Outlook by @manoldonchev.

And there's the #westernshores tag to bind them in a single collection.

Someday these shall help a game be born, see if they don't!

Thank you for viewing!

Yours,

Manol