Maerad, Fire Lily of Pellinor

"Seek then one who comes Speechless from the Mountains:
a Bard unschooled and yet of this School.
Seek and cherish the Fire Lily,
the Fated One,
which blooms the fairer in dark places
and sleepeth long in darkness;
from such a root will blossom the White Flame anew…"

Maerad, Fire Lily of Pellinor, from The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon. These books are a largely undiscovered gem, in my opinion. They’ve been a treasure of mine for years now.

This just began as a page of sketches (I was trying to finalize a character design for Maerad) when one sketch just started to take over. The other sketches were later erased and became other (unfinished) drawing which I may post later. I’m fairly happy with the portrait, and the lily for that matter, but not so happy with my scanner. It distorted things AND cut off part of my quote, grrrr…

This was drawn BEFORE I discovered that a young Natalie Dormer would be my perfect Maerad. Yet, somehow I think this almost looks like her….what do you think?

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Reference taken from TOAST magazine. Maerad and The Books of Pellinor copyright Alison Croggon.