🧙 Lore Snippet

From the wind-whipped ridges of the Stonevault Mountains, a solitary figure steps from snow and shadow into the golden warmth of a mountain hall. Eyes narrowed, cloak heavy with frost, the Dwarf Lord carries not only the weight of his heritage but the glow of firelight reflected in battle-worn bronze. The hall awaits. So does the reckoning.

🎨 Artist Notes

This piece was a milestone in my journey—painted with storytelling front and centre. Rather than defaulting to conventional lighting, I reversed it: cold light spills from behind, while the soft firelight of the hall illuminates the front. The aim was to evoke the exact moment the Dwarf Lord crosses a threshold, letting the lighting tell that tale. I pushed hard on realism with saturated warms vs icy blues, relying on carefully applied NMM and feedback from two master-level painters to refine the final finish. This bust earned a bronze medal in the GitGub Monthly Challenge and took around 80 hours to complete—layered with patience, palette knife weathering, and story-first focus.