Alastor, Grand Chancellor of the Spire
A mind sharpened by a thousand arcane battles.
Ruler of the High Citadel, Alastor’s piercing gaze beholds past, present, and future woven together in the ether.
The Inspiration
Alastor is clearly inspired by Michael Gambon‘s version of Albus Dumbledore (see Eldrin for a Richard Harris flavour).
My love of the fantasy genre means that I have a huge soft spot for creating wizards of all types – they’re the lifeblood of literary style. I wanted to capture a known likeness but in a smaller form – to see if I could make a recognisable face without the luxury of the detail of a larger piece. In this instance a stern, headmasterly figure from a beloved book series.
The Craft
I used a fine wire tip when burning this piece. The line work is heavily burned to maximise contrast while the only shading is light and solid more to provide colour than shape. The shadows are solid and the wispiness of the beard implied rather than rendered.
The difficulty with working on a smaller scale is that a lot of the detail has to be inferred and any mistake is magnified.
