This is another illustration I made for Pathfinder.
As it is quite obvious, the scene depicts the iconic paladin Paladin in the act of fighting a big, pissed off demon.

I was of two minds when working on the sketches.
My first thought was about drawing the characters in more dynamic poses, probably both of them leaning towards the centre of the scene, in that split second before the attack, like springs ready to jump, weapons in their mid-arch.
If this were a marketing illustration it would have probably been my first and only choice.
Eventually, as you can see, I went for a more static situation, with all the energy still at its potential stage, instead of being just about to be released.

The Paladin and the Demon are still undoubtedly going for each other, although I choose to depict them as if more weary of their adversary, thus hopefully increasing the tension.

The Demon is prowling around, circling its opponent, looking for an opening in her defence.
The Paladin is confident in her skills (and possibly her faith?) and she’s probably waiting for the evil enemy to strike first.
Paladins do that, sometimes.

In hindsight, now that I look at it with fresh eyes, the demon could be a bit more impressive, with the usual arsenal of hair, spikes and extra teeth.
However, I like the fact that the outcome of the battle is still uncertain, which thing would less more apparent had the Demon be more threatening than it already is.

As for the rest, as it always happens when I have to draw two character facing each other, I had to take some choices: you can’t have both of them turned towards the viewer, like on a theatre’s stage.
Again, I choose to leave the demon in the shadows, hiding part of his face, to leave the viewer wondering how ugly it would actually be.

In the end, this is the illustration that took the shortest time amongst those I made for this assignment.
Maybe because, for once , it was on a canvas size that I’m not uncomfortable with🙂

by Paolo Puggioni