Woo, I haven't done a big sketch like this in a looooooong time, I usually tend to work smaller for some reason :S but hey, I'm likin it so definately more large scale pieces to come. Was all done with just a standard HB pencil lol. I used to have all the different grades but dunno what happened to them O_o so usually I just use whatever HB is lying around.

But anyhoo, onto the piece itself. Another pic of Matthias although obviously I could fit a lot more detail into it. I think I may have made him look a bit older than he's meant to be and he does have something of a menacing sparkle in his eye but I spose that befits his character and potential well. The sword was fun, I tried to really work some nice lil details into it. The description of it in the book doesn't go into too much detail, just that it has a Red pommel stone (hidden in this pic), a black and silver leather bound hilt, a heavy silver cross-piece and a double-edged blade with a blood channel. So I decided to add lil tidbits into it, such as it's never described what part of the hilt is silver and seeing as it's wound round the hilt, I decided that the black leather would have a silver embroidered design running round the spiral.

(I don't wanna spoil the books for anyone who isn't aware so if you don't wanna know, might wanna skip the next paragraph)

In Mossflower we learn that the blade was forged in Salamandastron by the Badger Lord, Boar the Fighter. So I tried to place something "Badger-esqe" into the blade design. The design at the centre of the blade is meant to be a kind of stylised badger. On the edges of the blade are two "wavy" designs. These represent the surrounding areas of Salamandastron. The sea on the right side of the blade as seen in the pic and the mountain ranges on the left. I theorised that when forging the blade, Boar the Fighter would've been holding the blade in such a manner that the mountain design would face East (as the mountains do appear in the east) and the sea facing west. And down the blade was some writing written in Badger-Speak. Just threw in a few squiggles to make the language lol nothing really authentic there. I had an idea that Boar also designed to spice up the cross bar a little and so carved an embossed design of Salamandastron into it with a setting sun to the west and a rising moon to the east. You can't see it too well in the pic but it's there lol.

So ya, that's the piece. Expect a coloured up version soon