Alright, posting another one of my fanart pieces from Inhonoredglory and Toothlesslove's web novel. You can find the incredible story here if you are interested in a good (somewhat dark and paralyzing) read:
Anyway, I said dark, and I did sort of mean it. This may be one of my best handled digital paintings to date (though I am trying to finish one that I feel I may like even more), but I rarely show it to people because the subject matter requires a lot of explaining. The over all dark lighting and shading on Toothless is what I really like, but let me get to explaining why something this awful ever wound up being my subject matter. Yes, that is Toothless underwater with someone who he has just been drowning. Dark stuff...
The general plot (I'll try not to give spoilers) is that Toothless has been put into a moral dilemma. This person, Heather, has attempted to ride him, but when she gets him out over the open ocean, he drops into the sea with her, bites her around the waist, and holds her underwater. She is an extremely evil character, but I will not tell you all the horrors she has perpetrated so as not to spoil any major plot points. It just needs to be known that she deserves death, she is Toothless's enemy, and his anger against her is just... but. As Toothless holds her underwater, he is suddenly horrified with himself for what he is doing. She may deserve death, but he is sickened and frightened to see himself giving it to her. He backs away and looks at her body in shock before swimming away in fear and horror without seeing if she is dead and without caring. It was a stunning moment in the story to see what Toothless would do when trying to kill a helpless foe who deserves death. Really powerful and interesting morals themes played out, and I for one found myself wondering what would have been the correct thing to do or how to even feel about the whole scene! Should I be happy she is dead? Should I think Toothless was right because she was evil? Or should I be horrified and think Toothless has turned into a wild monster? I came to some interesting conclusions on what I think one should feel at the death of an enemy after reading that chapter, and that surprised me! That story actually made me think through moral dilemmas I never would have expected, so again (if you have the courage and don't mind being utterly depressed and left cliffhanging!) I would highly recommend this story!
And, as usual, the art piece is bigger than the image above, so open it in a new window if you want to see a bigger file. I think the lighting on Toothless came out surprising well considering how difficult I find digital painting. Hope you appreciate it... not necessarily like it because it is one of the darkest things I've ever captured.
I noticed Toothless is missing his tail fins in your picture.
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