I love the story behind this epic cover. Michael's cosplay as Rand is great! I wonder what was the concept for the Calandor here, the sword that is not a sword, it is in the center of the focus here and I always imagined it to be something different.
As I recall—and mind, I still haven’t read the books—it was supposed to be crystal, isn’t it? (I’m not certain at this point.) Also, isn’t it supposed to be glowing, a source of light in the scene as it develops further?
I was just trying to visualize the scene as it was relayed to me… not my usual practice. I’d probably do it differently now.
It was looking like crystal or glass sparkling in the light, and i love how this works in the painting (did some more inspections of the print i have) with its transparency and reflections of light. And i agree that in the story it was glowing. I read the book awhile ago, but my question was about the form of the sword actually, i do not remember it being described as anything other than having a blade, hilt and guard, which is rather vague for a sword description. So it could be anything in terms of form. I am not a sword expert at all but i see how the elegance of the one in the painting works well towards the composition and if it was a bigger massive sword the pose would be ridiculous. But in all the variations i saw in the original post the sword is more or less the same, and more swordlike, so i was curious was there any inspiration for the particular form or was it dictated by the concept of the scene that you have imagined. I visualised it to be a bigger more massive looking although taking into account the story it probably weights nothing.
I just followed the form of the bokken used in the model photo, one of mine from my own limited collection of props. I liked the curve of it. Since I assumed that the title type on the cover would be large I became concerned that a straight edge sword would clash with the title and/or author’s name, making them hard to read. As it turned out I needn’t have worried about that. 😉
Alright, I gotta share this with the Whitecloaks now.
I love the story behind this epic cover. Michael's cosplay as Rand is great! I wonder what was the concept for the Calandor here, the sword that is not a sword, it is in the center of the focus here and I always imagined it to be something different.
As I recall—and mind, I still haven’t read the books—it was supposed to be crystal, isn’t it? (I’m not certain at this point.) Also, isn’t it supposed to be glowing, a source of light in the scene as it develops further?
I was just trying to visualize the scene as it was relayed to me… not my usual practice. I’d probably do it differently now.
It was looking like crystal or glass sparkling in the light, and i love how this works in the painting (did some more inspections of the print i have) with its transparency and reflections of light. And i agree that in the story it was glowing. I read the book awhile ago, but my question was about the form of the sword actually, i do not remember it being described as anything other than having a blade, hilt and guard, which is rather vague for a sword description. So it could be anything in terms of form. I am not a sword expert at all but i see how the elegance of the one in the painting works well towards the composition and if it was a bigger massive sword the pose would be ridiculous. But in all the variations i saw in the original post the sword is more or less the same, and more swordlike, so i was curious was there any inspiration for the particular form or was it dictated by the concept of the scene that you have imagined. I visualised it to be a bigger more massive looking although taking into account the story it probably weights nothing.
I just followed the form of the bokken used in the model photo, one of mine from my own limited collection of props. I liked the curve of it. Since I assumed that the title type on the cover would be large I became concerned that a straight edge sword would clash with the title and/or author’s name, making them hard to read. As it turned out I needn’t have worried about that. 😉