I ultimately plan to put these images in a "game" version of the Conqueror of the Sun series as a kind of Visual Novel. I have been working in chronological order according to the timeline of the books. This means I have been trying to focus on Conqueror of the Sun - Prelude to Destiny - 1st Light. With already over 100 images completed, I figure I am about halfway done.
Anyway, despite usually keeping disciplined to doing the scenes in order, occasionally I really want to skip ahead and do a scene from much further in the timeline. Such is the case of the following image meant to represent a scene from Conqueror of the Sun - Book 4 - Queen's Chaos:
The moment is a pretty important one for the entire series. The setting is the throne room of the IRF Imperial Sunrise Palace located in the Nevada deserts. From left to right are the following characters: General of the SF Joshua Rikes, Heaven's General Kier in Gold Claw colored Desakar power armor suit, IRF Empress Sarah Arc on the throne, Adjunct Heaven's General Varivies, General of War Horatio Wells, IRF Prince Jareth Arc (at age 15), and IRF Princess Emily Arc (13).
The image is meant to represent the time when Prince Jareth Arc confronts his mother Empress Sarah Arc about the status of the crumbling IRF Empire under her watch.
Overall, I am pretty pleased with how close the image mimics how I imagined it in my head. The following is a breakdown of what is very similar and what things are different than how I pictured things:
Joshua Rikes, Sarah Arc, and Horatio Wells characters look almost exactly how I imagined them. The overall throne room style is pretty close as well. A few differences compared to what is described in the book would be: 1) The entire throne is supposed to be gold (although having cushions makes a bit more sense) and also the throne is meant to be a bit bigger. 2) The number of steps leading up to the throne is only off by one, as it is mentioned to have 5 instead of 6 steps. Also, the steps, as I envisioned them would be wider in length and slightly taller. The Gold Claw Desakar armor is at least gold, but if I could really design the armor more precisely, they would look more bulky all around and the head/helmet would be more box-like in shape and seem more a part of the chest part.
And although not seen from the angle in this image, Jareth Arc and Emily Arc are fairly close to how I imagined them. The IRF Princess dress is also kind of close, but the dress is a little plain. Also, the straps would rest on the top part of the shoulders and have the IRF Princess rank insignia pinned to each side. Nonetheless, the design of the top back of the dress is basically exactly how I envisioned it as well as the dress length. The shoes and socks are fine too. In addition to this, the front top of the dress is basically exactly how it should be, not being a v-cut, but flat, straight line across the chest. Finally, although not seen, Emily Arc is actually wearing the garters designed to hold the IRF Princess Knives, but they are just above the dress bottom length.
The military uniforms for Joshua Rikes, Horatio Wells, and Jareth Arc are very close, but the boot length would not be as tall and not so shiny. However, the biggest change I wish I could get is to make the collars to be more tunic style as well as both the top and pants being more tight-fitting. The IRF symbols at the collar front are how I imagined, but they would be square in shape and again closer to one another due to the tight fit style of tunic tops.
