Friday, October 25, 2013

Old to New 6: Zaddin, Ambassador, Provincial Ruler and Grandpa


{Theme Music: Last Night as I Lay Dreaming, The Prodigals}


Today is another look at Kamino's family.

Zaddin is Kamino's maternal Grandfather, born of the Oceanian royal line he's held the highest title of Governorino most of his life.  Before that he'd served as Oceania's representative in Paonia's capital city, affectionately referred to as D-City; the official home of the Decrestore, Domerse and Dameer, the most important personages of Paonia.

As Oceanian ambassador Zaddin had been working hard to restoring friendly terms

between his home province and the capital.  Relations had been strained for some time due to D-City feeling Oceania was too independent while Oceania felt D-City was too intrusive.  The resolution received a severe blow when an extreme Oceanian group made a violent demonstration in the capital - and fell apart entirely after Zaddin was called home to his father's deathbed.


Shortly after he became Governorino Zaddin came to have a daughter - it was a bit of a scandal since she just appeared one day and Zaddin has chosen to never reveal her mother's identity.  It just speaks to the respect and love the people had for their new Governorino that he weathered this scandal pretty much unscathed, and his daughter Kamira was just as widely adored as her father.

Perhaps an even greater feat of Zaddin's is that he also maintained a good personal relationship with D-City, and was privileged to receive both the Decrestore and High Warress (1st and 2nd most powerful Chikiles) as guests on multiple occasions, in addition to other nobles of note.  This is credited with the seemingly ideal compromise that was eventually reached between Oceania and D-City.  Zaddin's daughter, a royal Oceanian, would marry a D-City noble.  Hence D-City could say one of it's own governed Oceania, while Oceanians felt they still ruled themselves.

Ultimately this compromise did not work out, Kamira sadly died young, and the babe Kamino was left to her devastated Grandfather's care.  At that time he chose to take a back seat in ruling in order to focus on his only remaining family.  Still he's a beloved ruler and able to wield his share of power, having a lifetime of favors and friendships to call upon.

All character shots of Zaddin were done in Crayola colored pencil and were a straightforward update - pretty much no changes to speak of, though as an early update their clearly about due to be updated again.

I still rather like his youth shot, though, and perhaps that's why I chose to do his portrait based on this picture.  Again the portrait is done in pastels - deepest shadows had a watercolor pencil base (not the best choice for the thinness of pastel paper, I learned), topped primarily by Rembrandt pastels with touches of Sennelier.

Background setting is Oceania.  Inspiration for the under tiling of the overhang was the colorful interior of shells - I believe it's called nacre.  The shape of the pillars have a definite seashell feel to them.  These touches seemed fitting for an island that makes it living from the ocean.

Tomorrow I'll continue the Paonian theme with the woman herself - she's gone by many names in a relatively short life, but so far we know her best as Kamino.

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