The Legend of Nana Yaa Illustrations
Illustrations for a young adult novel currently in the process of being published, titled "The Legend of Nana Yaa".
I created everything in the illustrations other than the human characters, such as backgrounds, or any non-human animals. I was also responsible for compositing the human characters into the scene by adding lighting and shadows after the other artist had completed his part. Until the book is published, I can't reveal too much about the context of the pictures, but I'll say what I can.
A slave ship sailing on the ocean at night.
"There is no difference between the rain and ocean; the ominous ship, prepared to transport a human harvest is in peril, drenched by sheets of pounding rain and monstrous waves."
The main village, set somewhere in Ghana.
"Nana Yaa stops and listens. She hears chomping of an animal feasting. She crawls to a clearing where a leopard is drunk with the fresh flesh and blood of a large deer."
“Now he carries a thunder-axe in each hand. At his feet are a nest of crocodiles, docile and sleepy, like house pets when Anyanor is near.”
“Anyanor walks behind a mangrove cluster, his axes in weapon position.”
Two slavers sitting around a campfire they set up for themselves in the jungle.
An altercation between our protagonist and antagonist set just outside of the village.
"I vow to save my family."
The lighting and smoke in this scene was incredibly fun to do. Our protagonist had to be lit from behind, so to accent this I had to lower her exposure in the front to cheat how much brightness the glow from the fire adds.