Ai and Estraven by @veltzeh (V. E. Lehkonen)

So, this is the first time EVER that I managed to get a book illustration look even remotely how I imagined the stuff to look. I think it's also the second time ever I tried it in the first place. (Though I am pretty sure I did try to draw some rabbits from Watership Down.) Drawn with black ink brush pen, colored in PSP 7. Stages: sketch → shaded pencil version → ink version → better ink version → computer colored version.

Two characters, the main character Genly Ai and an essential side character, Therem Harth rem ir Estraven from the book The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. And yes, I actually remember their names perfectly. This is a scene from the second half of the book, when Ai and Estraven are traveling over an ice field (pardon my English). They're in a tent. I think the reason this picture came out relatively okay was that I drew an actual scene and not just a random character standing around.

Consequently, this book is my favorite one now. I love it. It's about Ai telling the people of Gethen (who are all androgynous humans) about the Ekumen and trying to get them to join it. Well, that's his mission, but it kind of digresses from it. In the meanwhile he tries to realize that the people of Gethen are neither men nor women but still are both. And even worse for him, the planet of Gethen is in the middle of its glacial period.

Well, I guess I just had to draw more androgynous people (and this time NOT MY OWN CHARACTERS YAY!). Hey. I just realized I haven't colored a person with a dark complexion before. Weird.

Er. If you didn't figure out yet, the one sitting in the front is Genly Ai and the one lying asleep in the back is Estraven.