With this illustration, I'm trying to broaden my children's illustration portfolio. Most of my current portfolio targets younger children, but I would also like to work on middle grade books (ages 8-12.) For this picture, I pretended that I was designing a cover illustration. I wanted the characters to be prominent and to be in a dramatic moment. I also wanted to create a specific setting that would grab a reader's interest. I based the look of my fantasy world on Viking and Slavic cultures, and I spent a lot of time looking up reference material. In my current process, I draw my composition on paper and then paint it digitally. I'm still terrible at drawing on my Wacom tablet, and the painting stage goes smoother when I only have to think about color and light.