Long ago, on the world of Shadar, the Raldia continent was populated largely by the harvester elves. Raldia was rich with the fruit of the plains and grasslands and the elves grew crops and learned the ways of magick and healing. The day came when the fire fell from the sky and destroyed much of Raldia along with most of the elves but the survivors built boats and sailed to a new land and named the land "Am 'Athir" meaning "land of hope." They began building their new civilization and it wasn't long before they discovered the natives living in the forest boundaries between Am 'Athir and Dyn' Raeth. These were also elves but were dark skinned and were hunters and foragers. The races instantly recognized each other as friendly and peaceful and were more than eager to cooperate with each other. The dark elves were also quick to warn the harvesters about their evil cousins, the drow, living in the southern caves alongside the daemons. Although being distantly related to the dark elves, the drow had developed darker skin and fairer hair but the occasional throwback revolted them and children were commonly abandoned for their resemblance to the dark elves. After a hunting trip in the forest, a small group of dark elves came across a young drow girl, abandoned and hungry. The caves were many miles from the forest so somebody must have brought her here, maybe hoping the dark elves would find her and take care of her. She could only speak four words; the first three were "Mother," "eat" and "drink" in the drow tongue but nobody understood the fourth word, "Loga." The girl was given to a young couple who named her Sharadil, meaning "butterfly" and she was much loved by all who knew her. She easily mastered the elemental magicks and the bow and being gentle in spirit, also had a natural aptitude for healing. Many times she was called upon to help the tribe's healers when a difficult case was brought before them. Sharadil now leads an ongoing quest to rescue and care for abandoned drow children. She also hopes to find the daemon who brought her to the forest.

Very nice Eris. I love the job you do on your shading and blending. The hair is cool too.

Thank you Molly. It's my first successful (or near successful) attempt at hair. Actually, having posted it it looks a bit dark to me. I'll have to adjust the levels a little I think.

erisian:
lovely picture and lovely story!! and you've tied her together with your daemon warrior now, that's such a good starting point for their adventures. i know you don't like that kind of fantasy, but you have the beginning of so many stories here!
when will you make your mouth tutorial? i definitely need it!

I love the story and your picture. Nice job. Is that a butterfly on her hand? I think you could do a better job of it if it is.

Thank you AnMal - tutorial coming up. And another story is ready to be painted. The painting doesn't look as dark on this monitor so I'll leave it alone unless somebody sees room for improvement.

It is a butterfly O and it was copied from a photo where the butterfly looks very similar to this. I guess it just doesn't look believable enough as a painting so I'll get to work on it. Thank you.

She reminds me of a Vulcan! Ears, hair, expression. Very nice.

Nice! I think the hair came out really well, too.

Thank you both. I've now adjusted the levels and Iwarped the butterfly a little. It's not perfect but at least it looks more like a butterfly now.

Great work, Erisian! Everything looks so nice and smooth! Her hair came out really nice, though I think it could use some shading on her forehead.

Total oversight! Thank you for that BaukjeSpirit.

I was going to say the same thing BaukjeSpirit said about the shading, also I think the hair looks a little too rubbery but this style I think it fits okay, I'm just a very detailed hair liker. xD

Her hand seems a bit square and flat but that might be the angle.

I love this in a whole, nice work! You shaping of things always comes out supurbe!

@ 2-ton: I thought too Star trek, funny!

Thank you Moko. I won't be doing any more on the hair after shading because I've already done the best I can with it this time. With practice I'll get better. Dark elves and drow - vulcans and romulans - the story is similar as well as the features.

Nice work Erisan, very smooth.

Thank you he4rty.

Very nice indeed. I was reading your story and wondering if you play any games? Such as Lord Of The Rings online etc.
I'm a LOTRO addict and play whenever I can.
Also, do you work in layers?

I play Might and Magic including fan mods. Apart from wizardry 8 i haven't found any other games I like as much. If you download my face sculpting pdf you will see that I use very few layers and I am constantly merging them down. Once I have all the values I need I just colour pick from the painting to refine the forms.

Thank you.