SciFi and Fantasy Art: Thomas

"He wasn't quite finished; Thomas slithered his way over to Alisa, almost touching, then he looked back to me, 'You know these types, Alisa, you know what I know very well. They will say anything to protect their secret. It's hard to trust a thing like that,' as he spoke, he went through a succession of expressions and gestures, all glib and sinister. He almost danced away from her—the humans would have deemed him mad, but I knew better. He wasn't simply mad; he was a deeper shade of insanity. He relished his own power and was well aware of his demented mind; he loved it. 'So what is the real reason you've come to me, my dear, sweet Alisa?' Only then did he turn back to look at her.

"Alisa stood erect but lowered her head, unable to look him in the eyes. She spoke softly, knowing just the right words. 'We...we aren't going to win. Raynald and I have realized that now.' She sighed a heavy sigh, speaking the truth, and continued on with a lie, 'There is no hope for our side. You were right from the beginning.'

"Thomas smiled, relishing the moment. He moved closer to Alisa, this time like a flash of lightning, smooth and quick; his hand found her chin, giving a quick caress. I guess she didn't see him move his hand because the moment his fingers touched the underside of her chin her jerked almost imperceptibly. Almost imperceptibly. He took his hand and forced her to look at him, his face inches from hers. My instincts kicked in but I knew that it was possible the situation had not been completely compromised. He spoke to her in a hiss from between his teeth, 'Is that so, my dear Alisa?' I saw her eyes flicker, waver. Thomas saw it too. 'What are you afraid of?' His eyes raped hers, searching for the evidence of her deception.

"She stood tall, bearing the force of his invasive gaze, and bored her own eyes into his, gathering courage. She grabbed his wrist and pushed him away from her, defiant: she knew we could not afford to fail. She opened her mouth to speak and to this day I will never know what she might have said; Thomas struck her down, quicker than a flash of lightning, with the loudest 'crack' I have ever heard in my life.

"Alisa tumbled to the floor and although she recovered quickly and returned to her feet, I moved myself in between Alisa—her hair was in complete disarray, I remember it clearly, with rouge strands defying gravity and still more clouding her vision—and Thomas, who had the expression of a serpent ready to strike."

(Ch. 2 of Ashes, (c) Heather Harper)
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Thomas is probably my very favorite character, simply because he's so out there, and he's got such a hold of himself. He's so insane, but so intuitive.

In this scene, Raynald and Alisa are trying to buy themselves some time before Alisa is sent to Earth. They try to appease to Thomas, the leader of a radical group of rebels. Yes, that's a halo. Sometimes the older style is easiest. I would say that the traditional notion of angels doesn't really apply here, hehe.

This was an interesting piece for me to draw because i don't have most of my usual materials here. I used a permanent marker for the background, chalk pastels for the eyes (which seem just a touch wonky), hard colored pencil sticks for the skin, grey pastel for the shading on the jacket, and graphite/ebony pencils for his hair. I lined it with a felt-tip liner. took me right around 3.5 hours.

12/23/07