Healing

Now that I've finally read the Tawny Man trilogy, I can finally appreciate what an awesome storytelling job you did with this illustration!

And with very simple means, too. No bright flashy colours, or overloading with intricate details... just the characters and their relationships to each other.

I think you have captured them all in a nutshell. Thick and Dutiful are, I think, very accurately characterized simply by their postures. The gentle adolescent, looking a bit gauche as he stands there, and the "half-wit", with his slack face and awkward turn of hand.

The Fool/Lord Golden is just as beautiful and graceful as he ought to be, with his bright hair and soft fall of garment, and the light outlining his face, even though we can't actually see the face. I think it's great how you have positioned him alone on the other side of Fitz - being a part of the coterie who accomplishes the healing and yet not a part, always on his own. And kneeling opposite Chade - there's this tug of war going on between them over the Fitz, and I think you have captured that really well, without making too much of it - just by how you have positioned the characters in the image. And of course the light is on the Fool's side, while Chade's face, true to his name, casts a shadow all over himself. And between the two, we can't even see Fitz's head at all! Poor Fitzy-fitz... :grin: Fitz's posture on the mattress, btw, is a great figure drawing job.

The only thing that does not quite work for me is Chade. I don't quite know why, but he seems too small in relation to the other characters? I know, there is perspective, but still - I think it's mostly his face that seems too tiny, and perhaps a bit too fine - I would have imagined him with coarser features, and more hawk-nosed, but then I can't see the detail very well at that resolution. Also perhaps the arm that reaches to Dutiful needs to be a bit bigger? He looks to me almost more like a child, than an old man.

But it's a minor gripe, and doesn't take away from the impact of the whole! This is a great exercise in the art of "less is more" <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Big Grin)" />