Behind The Art: Seasoned Sellsword

Lindsey Crummett is a multi-talented artist with an incredible breadth of experience in multiple artistic mediums, to include: sculpting, digital painting, and traditional painting.  

In my interview with Lindsey, Lindsey discussed how she had done some digital sculpting for Sorcery: Contested Realm creator, Erik Olofsson.  As Erik was looking for artists for Sorcery, he looked through her Arstation portfolio and discovered the one oil painting among mostly digital work, which has come to be known as "Seasoned Sellsword" for Sorcery's Alpha debut.  As such, this is the work of art that opened the door for her opportunity in Sorcery, and led to her first new commission of the iconic "Ancient Dragon"!  

Fun Fact - Lindsey mentioned in our interview that the piece was originally titled "Fight Like a Girl".  Here's why...

I was able to catch up with Lindsey recently and she graciously provided the following description:

Warrior women depicted in illustrations is nothing new, but I wanted to capture something very specific in her facial expression. Rather than an effortless badass that vanquishes foes with ease all while looking like a model on a shoot, I wanted to capture the kind of single minded concentration seen on an Olympic athlete. Someone who has trained countless hours to be at the top of their game. A “seasoned sellsword”, is seasoned, right?! So I referenced a lot of female Olympic athletes, and particularly one pole vaulter that I thought held the expression I was looking for.

I grew up riding horses, doing archery, and pretending sword fight like Conan the Barbarian, so I always love to see believable female warriors. Of course partly by subconscious accident and partly from referencing my expression in the mirror, some of myself went into the character too!