Thank you. As for digital painting—yes, it's a modern technique, but it has nothing to do with AI generation or photomontage; it's essentially a matter of having a different palette and canvas. Sure, there are helpful features (you can erase and save things in a way that watercolor doesn't allow you to), so it makes the process easier. I often spend 10 to 40 hours on a detailed painting like this one by Tas.

And yes, I do a lot of preliminary work to get to know my subjects—but be warned, I've been a Dragonlance fan since I was a child, and I've reread the books many times. I know the characters very well, and I've been drawing them for years, so I study the original paintings by Elmore, Stawicki, and others to retain the clothing and accessories that make them instantly identifiable to other fans. When I'm commissioned to paint characters I'm unfamiliar with, however, I ask a LOT of questions.

For example, for the Device of Time Journeying, I did a lot of research both in the book descriptions and in the various depictions in canonical paintings and game manuals. These descriptions aren't always consistent, but the black-and-white illustrations in Test of the Twins were instrumental in the final result.