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AFTERWORD By Kristin Bergh, Q3 Illustrator
Quest 3 is different from Quest 2 in so many ways, not only in the story itself but also in the artwork. I have had more time to illustrate this than I had for Quest 2 (2 weeks), so the illustrations are more detailed and there are more of them. My goal for this was to have at least 2 illustrations per chapter. Quest 3 was also a big stretch for me as it was for Evi just because of all of the magic in it. I had to set my mind in a totally different gear in order to match my artwork with all of the fantasy descriptions that Evi put into the text itself. It was difficult to get in to, because magic has no boundaries. Anything and everything are possible and the look of it is totally different from anything else. I've had to learn how to use some of the effects on my computer, such as the swirls that are on the Quest 3 cover, because doing effects like that are so hard that they're nearly impossible. Another thing that I've had to do that may not be so obvious to the readers but was definitely a big thing to me was age Ali and Azul. It wasn't by that much, only 2 years, but in that point in life just 2 years is time for noticeable subtle changes such as Ali's hair being longer and his physique being a little bigger, and just small changes to Azul's face to make her look not so kiddish. Such changes are hard to do, but its a great reward when you finally get them right. There have also been two major new characters in Quest 3, being Azrak and Aswad. Designing them was my first big challenge. I had to start from scratch with nothing to go off of on Aswad, and only a vague impression of Merlin for Azrak. I found a quick sketch that I had done years ago of an old man, and that became Azrak after I refined him some. All I had for Aswad's look was the thought that I wanted it more angular with sharper edges to convey the fact that he was a villain. I designed him one afternoon in my sketchbook at school by just trying out different ideas and then choosing my favorites and putting them on paper. Now I had Azrak and Aswad from the shoulders up, but I needed to design their clothing. Clothing, to me, is harder to design than a face. As in every Disney movie or TV show, each character has a certain outfit that they wear that is part of the definition of that character such as a purple vest and red fez being Aladdin and blue harem pants being Jasmine. I knew that I wanted Azrak to have long robes because to me, that made him look more experienced and wiser, which he is compared to Aswad. He's a master of his craft and teacher to Aswad. I wanted a good slightly regal look to him, and I knew that crescent moons were going to be a prominent feature about him, so I kept playing around with different things, adding details here and there, until I came out with the final Azrak that made it into the story with cream and royal blue trimmed with gold. Aswad was more of a challenge, because I wanted the kind of clothes to show that he was a villain. The first draft of his clothes that I did looked too much like Jafar, so I had to start over on that part. I finally came up with the simple but "important" looking outfit with a little less detail than Azrak, with dark colors on all of it. Azrak has blue eyes, of course, since he is Azul's ancestor, but I was free to do whatever I wanted on Aswad. I made him have green eyes, mostly because my own eyes are green and I thought that if I made them a really lime colored green, they would be piercing and intimidating. I've also incorporated some different styles in Quest 3 such as black and white, regular color, and black and white with one item in color such as the pics in the trailer. I'm thankful for Quest 3 in more than one way because it really broadened my range of what I can do.
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