The Angel's Breath

"Twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death"

Ok, this is my first real picture I've produced with Photoshop (Elements 11) and the first piece of artwork I'm attempting to upload to DA. Not sure how well this is going to go.

--Spoiler Alert for The Mark of Athena--

Ok, if you don't recognized the scene, it's from The Mark of Athena, a little ways into chapter 13. Nico is suffocating in a jar, and Percy is seeing him in a dream. I decided to draw it for a couple of reasons.

First, the scene is just described really well. Reading that passage, I could just see exactly what it looked like. It gave me a good opportunity to practice with poses (something I'm not great at), anatomy (something I usually suck at), and lighting (something I had no idea how to do in Photoshop). In my opinion, the final result came out pretty well, but I would still really love to hear what you like and don't like about it. I know for a fact there are flaws.

Second, the end of MOA left me very concerned for Nico. Yes they rescued him, yes he's joining up, and yes Percy and Annabeth are probably in a bit more danger, but I can't shake the feeling something bad is going to happen to Nico in The House of Hades. Think about it. The Prophecy says "Seven halfbloods shall answer the call". Percy, Hazel, Frank, Jason, Piper, Leo, Annabeth, Nico. That's eight. The "extra" has to be either Nico or Annabeth, and Annabeth is mentioned explicitly later as part of the quest. Nico is only mentioned in passing. I like Nico, and it's going to suck if he's being set up to be killed off. I suppose there is always the option of Hazel going back to being dead, but that wouldn't exactly be better. Not to mention Nico would lose another sister. My mother thinks I'm reading too much into this- I hope I am- but it still has me worried.

Onto the picture itself. I used a lot of references while drawing this. Here are my "credits" for the stock images I found useful enough to print out and reference repeatedly, both for the body and sword:

I also referenced an uncountable number of tutorials, most of them here on DA. The two that helped me the most were by these people:

...and can be found in my favourites.
Also, while I didn't technically reference her work, I absolutely love how draws the PJATO characters, and my Nico design probably picked up on that. If you find they look somewhat similar, that's probably why.

That is about it, I think, so I'll just wrap this up. Bye. Comment please. Check out my writing.

PJATO © Rick Riordan
This image © Daughter of Shadow