if every local brings a bbq we can create a circle of warmth to stave off the March chill

what about dev allies who love cheeseburgers?

ahhhh your 'day for night' tones knock me senseless every time! 💙

whooops, not the same lovenug!
oh well

⑧ FINAL PIECES!
Here they are, all done ; )

⑦ Digital Painting Assembly:
Now that the traditional pages were done, all I really had to do was paint his hand & the glass/magic effects, then I could assemble the pages onto the desk with appropriate lighting.

⑥ Title Page!
Brought in the slavery elements, as well as referenced the red ink & depictions of gateways/buildings in the initial Russian designs.

⑤ Printing and Painting!
Put my new watercolour coloured pencils to good use, as well as some red gouache, and my beloved sepia india ink : )
The ink sketch of kirkwall is by far my favourite part of the art for me.
Then I re-scanned/printed more on top.

④ Concepting the design elements to populate the pages!

Since Varric and Hawke's story is centred around Kirkwall, I kept the motifs of the city itself, and Varric's dwarven identity.
Then I recreated them in Illustrator, as well as the title ;)

③ Falling into the Russian/Soviet design rabbit hole
More references for the style of manuscript I wanted to have Varric illustrating!
Really really dug the black and red inks on yellow paper.
Found a dope font via one of the references, Runholdy (by alit design)
Initial sketches of the manu pages

② Moodboard & Thumbnailing:
Gathering references based on vibe, content, and technique. Lots of manuscript stuff, Ivan Bilibin illustrated texts, and magic-focused books (art credits in alt text!)

@tulipathy.bsky.social there's a bb Alejandra in this chapter ;)

Do it! Haha. I was glad I found ones that were fully plastic too

I feel slightly like a toddler, but unfortunately it *has* already helped hahahah

what about all the guillotine gifs. Surely they were an inspiration! 😂