Rooftops by Night

I've been saving this one for a while as it's my favourite: possibly the best thing I've done so far, I think.

It's definately the best sky I've done. I wanted to try and capture a little Spielberg essence in it, so I have a vast wealth of stars and the classic shooting star.

Colour was an important factor here. I wanted purple and orange to set up a complementary palette. The glow of the city coming up to meet the sky. I think it turned out quite nice.

The scene shows the outcast prince Kalexes from a far-off land coming to a nocturnal city ruled by evil sorcerers (he has a cool jungle beast skull as a shoulderplate). Here he has met with Tineblas, the Black Spider: a powerful assassin and man-of-mystery who has become his firm ally (he wears a steel mask which has spider-like glowing green eyes). The festival of Starfall is an annual event which marks a meteorite shower- it is the one time that the city streets are filled with light and revelry. Tonight is the night they start their grand scheme to take over the city.

I like the idea of a hero character and a companion- it's a classic Sword and Sorcery trope (which is played out well in Omnihedron Games' Epoch system).

I did this piece mostly in Leeds, when I was there for the In-laws' Xmas party. I listened to a lot of the classic Conan soundtrack and Clutch. (Which is what I do most of the time, but I listened to even more when I was doing this).