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Description
I did this piece for an exam of illustration.
The two characters portrayed are Mistral and Xanatos. The first one you (hopefully ) already know: she is an elf and the dragon rider chief of her order. Xanatos is a more ambiguous guy: he is a human and commands a network of spies, a sort of secret service of the kingdom, although his loyalty ufficially doesn't go to anyone. Apparently he works for himself, but he join forces with Mistral because they share the purpose of defeating evil and see the good triumph. However, they strongly disagree on the way through which achieve this goal, since Xanatos and his sect have a very grim, bloody and unreliable reputation: they are known to kill, lie, plot and backstab in the name of a greater good. So Mistral has both to watch from her enemies and her alleged friends...

I tried to express their conflictual relationships in this drawing: Mistral embodies light, pureness of heart and spirit, represented by her ethereal appearance, while Xanatos embodies shadow, which is in the end a product of light.
The contrast between light and shadow (and thus between Mistral and Xanatos) is more apparent than real. They simply look from different perspectives at the same thing, but they seem not to be able to understand each other.
They are both faces of the same coin, even if none of them will ever admit it.

They both share the weight of their actions and decisions and this is metaphorically represented by the sword which separate them, but they both touch. Xanatos touches the handle, meaning that he wields violence and deception to achieve his goal, while Mistral touches the blade, meaning that she tries to direct it in the best possible way.

The title comes from the song Greater Lights by Tommy Tallarico, which inspired me a lot. I recommend it to you all!

Pencils and watercolours on paper (2013)

Description
I did this piece for an exam of illustration.
The two characters portrayed are Mistral and Xanatos. The first one you (hopefully ) already know: she is an elf and the dragon rider chief of her order. Xanatos is a more ambiguous guy: he is a human and commands a network of spies, a sort of secret service of the kingdom, although his loyalty ufficially doesn't go to anyone. Apparently he works for himself, but he join forces with Mistral because they share the purpose of defeating evil and see the good triumph. However, they strongly disagree on the way through which achieve this goal, since Xanatos and his sect have a very grim, bloody and unreliable reputation: they are known to kill, lie, plot and backstab in the name of a greater good. So Mistral has both to watch from her enemies and her alleged friends...

I tried to express their conflictual relationships in this drawing: Mistral embodies light, pureness of heart and spirit, represented by her ethereal appearance, while Xanatos embodies shadow, which is in the end a product of light.
The contrast between light and shadow (and thus between Mistral and Xanatos) is more apparent than real. They simply look from different perspectives at the same thing, but they seem not to be able to understand each other.
They are both faces of the same coin, even if none of them will ever admit it.

They both share the weight of their actions and decisions and this is metaphorically represented by the sword which separate them, but they both touch. Xanatos touches the handle, meaning that he wields violence and deception to achieve his goal, while Mistral touches the blade, meaning that she tries to direct it in the best possible way.

The title comes from the song Greater Lights by Tommy Tallarico, which inspired me a lot. I recommend it to you all!

Pencils and watercolours on paper (2013)