The Sea Bond

“The Sea Bond”, graphite and watercolor, 2010.

Interior illustration for my novel The Tembelaka Voyage.

I’ve begun doing little watercolor paintings instead of just sketches to illustrate my web novels. Here is the first one I finished. I used sea salt and rubbing alcohol to get some of the textures.

An excerpt from the scene this illustrates:

“The Amryn must be alerted,” the Professor said, “and the Queen and the Elders. Tirlain, I’m not sure that you had better—”
Tirlain, a woman with red gold curls and pale, freckled skin, touched the bond and immediately rose into the air herself, floating as if underwater, her hair rising in a bright aureole. She spoke, strange musical words in a language Jon did not know.
The grandmotherly woman adjusted her thick lenses. “That’s pre-drassic first tongue. Does anyone else here know it?”