Excerpt from Emily's correspondence with CRICKET

I will be sure to get some armor on that guard for illo 1, and make the Rake bigger in illo 4. I'll also try to push the perspective more to make it look like it's farther in the background, so that the size difference will also be more noticeable that way.

In Illo 2, I'm sorry that Bale is still so rough but I think you can still see what's happening. There will be some moss and ivy on the wall.

In Illo 3, I'm not sure how everyone feels about it, whether it's too creepy or not, but I thought it would be cool if Loric's eyes were glowing the same color as the magic of the hairpin. I plan to make the bright flash coming from the pin and lock bluish in color to match with the description of the blue-green color of fey magic.

In Illo 4, I was done with the Rake yesterday, but working out the background took longer than I anticipated because I still felt that the Rake didn't look massive enough in the composition. I think the size relationships work better than the original thumbnail, and the framing elements with the trees and characters in the foreground help to suggest that they are very close to us, and the Rake is far away. I can also do a lot with mist and atmosphere. I think despite the open space in the center, our eye is led from the Rake to the characters pretty well.

Here is the drawing for illo 5. Since we can't smell the exciting scents described in the text, instead I wanted to show how inviting the fey realm is with a warm glow. Took a while to figure out how to get those wet clothes right!

(back to Emily)