Pumpkin Carving is for Sissies

UPDATE: I am so happy this entry won an Honorable Mention!

Thanks for all the support once again!

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My official entry to the Guild Wars Halloween Art Contest 2010.

Concept:
Mina is my main character in Guild Wars and, although she has a good heart, she tends to have violent tendencies due to her love for battle. So during Hallow's Eve, I imagine her carving on the skulls of her opponents instead of pumpkins while looking good doing it as any mesmer should be!

Elements in the picture and their meanings:

-The skull that she is holding is a Charr skull or at least what I imagine the Charr skull to look like. I looked through feline skulls over the internet and put horns on it. Mina fought the Charr in the past, especially during the Northern Wall mission with two of her friends (My ranger and monk are also in the picture):


She doesn't have a deep seated hatred for the race unlike Gwen. Simply put - anyone that would cross her would surely end up the same way and this Charr wasn't so lucky (Or was he? It did get a kiss from her )

-The cat, the fire imp (on the wall) and the dagger are shoutouts for three of my Guildies in The Beautiful Oblivion [EON] - Sylas the Lynx ('nuff said) , Murke Faery (she had a mischievous fire imp as a pet) and Vale the Shade since his story involved a pair of (talking) daggers infused with fragments of his brother's soul - Madness and Malice. Well, they didn't have pumpkin handles but I can imagine Madness dressing up for the occasion

-The dragon carving on the skull serves two purposes - The long awaited Guild Wars 2 sequel and our guild emblem which is a black dragon for the rest of my guildmates.

-The Harvest Moon. I always loved Guild Wars rendition of this. I sort of combined the orange skull faced version with the white grinning version . I couldn't pick between them!

-The Raven on the window - Ravenhawk is my username in GWGuru forums and Mina is sometimes nicknamed as Raven - possibly due to her dark hair and overall mysterious persona.

-Obsidian Armor - Mina is usually seen wearing her black elite rogue's armor. I always wanted the Obsidian Armor set for her and that was made possible by the wonderful people of GWGuru's Nolani Forums. Earlier this year, I decided to take on Guild Wars commissions to purchase this armor and more importantly, challenge myself to getting better at drawing. So this is for them - the amazing people of Nolani.

Not to mention Tzu of GWGuru started the Nolani Halloween Workshop that I joined in:
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If not for the support and critiques of the people there (and some of my friends from DeviantArt), this picture would not be here today.

WIP Folder here:
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Special thanks to:
, , and The peeps from GWGuru Nolani forums for the critiques and inspiration.

Close up/Detail: