Raiders of the Dark Coast: Drawing Pirate Thea

How does one kill the unkillable? With magic of great power. What if that magic was stolen by pirates?

Raiders of the Dark Coast follows the group that left Penwick in the last book to search for demon slaying magic. The storyline picks up with them crossing the seas towards the sovereign nation of Lanfor. They will make new allies, become embroiled in a rebellion, face deadly storms, ancient gods, and pirates of course, as they travel down the Dark Coast.

Last year I posted what I thought would be the final art for Raiders. Not long afterwards I realized that the entire story was enough to span two books. Thus, Protectors of Penwick was born.

The original cover for Raiders depicted Thea Stealle in her priestess robes. Since Thea played such an integral role in Protectors though, I had Jackson incorporate her into that book cover instead. Since she still plays an important role in Raiders, however, we decided to add her back to the latest cover. This time instead of wearing her priestess robes, Thea is depicted in an outfit more suitable to the Dark Coast.

Above you can see a comparison of the two versions side by side, but the process of creating "Pirate" Thea is amazing to say the least. Below I've posted a video Jackson put together of the steps he took in the developing the new version:

Hope you enjoyed that. In the coming months, I will reintroduce the new characters that will appear in Raiders. I will also be posting some of the first excerpts. Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts below.

Thanks!

F.P.