Andrew Horton - The Lantern's Legacy

Introduction

Greetings Rookies! This submission will mostly be of an ongoing personal project of mine I'd like to share with you all, titled The Lantern's Legacy. What started as a random idea grew into a portfolio-building exercise, which then grew into a passion project. A tale of dark fantasy, I borrowed heavily from traditional Slavic myths and stories, chiefly the legend of Vasilisa the Fair and the Skull Lantern (which was the springboard of this whole thing), but many others have been cobbled together or borrowed from to arrange this cast of characters, monsters and concepts you will find below :)

The story is told through a series of keyframe illustrations, interspersed with smaller pencil drawings which all have narrative text attached to them when viewed on the hosting website(www.thelanternslegacy.com). For this submission, I will begin by sharing some of the development art I made before I started any of the narrative illustrations, followed by a breakdown of my process for creating one such illustration, then a sort of bestiary of all the creatures our heroes have encountered so far. Finally, the story in its entirety(visually) will be listed.

 I've had a lot of fun making all the places, creatures and characters who appear within, and I hope you'll enjoy seeing what I've made here!

The Lanterns Legacy

On an ordinary night, a blacksmith's children are stolen by a witch in a flying mortar. As he travels across the world to rescue them, myth and fantasy become his reality. Called upon as a champion of fate by the Firebird of Omen, his eyes will open to the workings of the world beyond his comprehension, and he will become a legend...

Before the story began, I drafted loads of sketches and designs for important locations, characters and their weapons of choice, mainly of our main character, Boris the blacksmith, and his adversary: the witch of legend Baba Yaga.

Boris the blacksmith. A terribly mundane man, Boris has known little of the world outside of his village, where he has lived since his daughter's birth 13 years ago. As his life is upended completely and he must venture further from home than he's ever been, he will be forced to find new understanding of the world around him and his place in it.

Boris' children. Ewa, eldest daughter and Aleksey, young son.

Ivan the Druid. An ancient wizard, a servant of the Earth and her magic who has stewarded the forests of the Slavic world for 30 generations in Baba Yaga's absence. He works to halt her schemes, and will be Boris' chosen companion on his journey, though as a hermit, he will not be the most jovial of company.

Boris' house from the outside, with first and second floors cut away

Iterations for Ivan's house

The namesake of the story: The Skull Lantern of Queen Vasilisa. An artifact of legend, said to have been left on Earth by the gods as a mistake at the end of the world's creation. It contains the light of the cosmos, able to purge the evil that is Baba Yaga...

The Monsters

Various fairies, sometimes known as vila in local mythology. These were done at a time I thought they would be full-fledged characters

A psoglav. Prolific grave robbers and man-eaters, characterized by tremendous greed and voracity. Traditionally, it is described as having a wolf's head with horse feet, but I went c r a z y with my interpretation. Horse monster representation is important folks.

The Firebird of Omen. A sign of change, blessings and curses, its influence will be felt throughout the story. A rare sight, but one of magnificent importance. Perhaps it is the true orchestrator of all unfurling events?

The Story as a Whole

This is where I'll arrange the entire story as it currently stands in chronological order. There won't be any of the narrative text here, this is just for the artwork, visit www.thelanternslegacy.com if you're curious and would like to read(or to view the rest of my portfolio). Enjoy!