Corlath WIP

EDIT: tweaked his face some more, and I'm much happier with it now. He looks less like a JRocker and a little more like himself. |D;
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Felt like uploading something, and this is one of my most recent WIPs, so hey, you guys get to see a sketch for a change.

This is *supposed* to be Corlath, from The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. It was the first of her books I ever read, and remains probably my favorite, though all her work is so good that it's nearly impossible to choose. I've been meaning to draw him for a very long time, and have only now finally become brave enough.

The lovely and frustrating thing about drawing any of McKinley's characters is that she somehow manages to get away with never directly describing them... and yet somehow you come away with a very clear mental impression of them, if not quite a mental *image*. Corlath is no exception - I haven't read the book in a while, but all I specifically remember is that he's young-ish (for a king, anyway), tall, has dark hair, and dark eyes that turn gold at key times. And just because of the setting of the book, I always imagined he would have a bit of a Middle-Eastern look about him, as well. Oh, and he's hot. Don't ask me how I know that; I just do.

And dammit, this doesn't quite look like him to me, but I can't figure out quite WHY. I'm hoping that as I actually paint, he'll come through clearer. I need to age him a bit, I think, and somehow make him less pretty yet still handsome. *goes back to scribbling*