I’ve been working on several different pieces for my continuing Tales of Quahnarren project, and have finally finished, after much delay, one of the earliest illustrations I had planned: ‘Black Hunter.’

This was always a tricky image to compose and produce, particularly because I desired to show a night scene with a dark horse and rider. Exactly how to go about achieving this, whilst still making the image readable, was something I had to experiment with a little. This illustration evolved quite a bit as I progressed and it took some time for the final design of the rider’s mask and armour to emerge – the mask shape was heavily influenced by a very interesting gnarled piece of wood that I noticed at a nearby winery. It can help to be observant of nature!

I used a few custom brushes in Photoshop to produce the effects I was looking for – notably the various cloud shapes in the background and the detailed, textured finish for the horse. I’m happy that the final artwork has the darkness and mood that I was searching for, and yet still has enough contrast and light to be an effective illustration. It is also nice to see it completed…