Reflection of Pain

Whenever I write a battle scene in my "WITCH: Dreams of Lusteria" story, I always play them in my mind, trying to picture them in the best ways possible. Whenever a Guardian awakens her New Power transformation, the entire ordeal for her has to be epic and worthy in the end. It has to do justice to both the victor and the defeated. While I am satisfied after the final draft, I often wonder if my readers can visualize the same level of awe inspiration in these moments of victory for our heroines. This is one work that left me breathless. Looking at this makes me feel as if I wasn't the one who wrote the story and visualized it. Rather, I feel as if I'm amongst the thousands of those who are awe struck by it.

Here in this drawing, you can see Xuan Wu, the corrupted Celestial Warrior of Water and the Lady of Sloth in defeat as Cornelia, the Guardian of Earth, stands over her with her newfound transformation. What I loved about Xuan Wu's face is that not only does her expression shows frustration, but great disbelief at the mere thought of herself, a powerful demi-goddess, defeated by a mortal girl from Earth. To her, this is unthinkable! But she has failed to understand that her opponent is no mere Earthling, but a Guardian who is deemed worthy to wield the element of the great Yellow Dragon.

The artist gave Cornelia a strong and solid pose like diamond and stone as she stands over her opponent, her hand glowing with green aura earth magic at the ready. Everywhere is the cold, blue atmosphere, but there is a glimmer of green aura of warmth that radiates from the Guardian of Earth: the extreme cold cannot harm her as the artist perfectly portrayed Cornelia representing the bright colors of spring in contrast with Xuan Wu's blue winter. What I really loved the best is the added touch of purple on Cornelia's new wings, giving it a three dimensional look as if she has two pairs of wings layering on top of one another! Truly an idea that is out of the box for this series!

Color, shading, lighting effects, and brush strokes have definitely been improved and polished over the courses of months for this artist and the result is worth it in the end. My only complain is the surroundings. While it does add a nice touch of winter mists, it's a little bit bland on its own. Perhaps adding a few ice pillars would have done the trick. My only other question is: can the artist depict a part of Cornelia's body turning into harden diamonds like in the story?