Pomegranate Princess

Far, far away, in the land of silk and sandalwood lived a beautiful princess. She used to sit by the fire and read the stories about heroes of old and wait for her own fate to come. But what was there to come? Would she be kidnapped by a handsome prince and would live happily ever after? Or would she be forced to marry an old rajah and have her misery end young in the blaze of a funeral pyre? Different stories were told of her, whispered by mothers to their children, stories of love and hate, of joy and misery, of life and death... Yet each shared the same: the life of the pomegranate princess, whether happy or sorrowful, was always very, very special, unlike any other man's or woman's.

FULL VIEW please. Details available here.

The art is the mental result of hot weather, "Prince of Persia" trilogy and a bit of a Bollywood overexposure. Technically this is 80% a digital painting, 10% vector art and 10% photomanip. The princess is hand-drawn basing on a photo reference for the pose and the lighting. The carpet is the only photomanip part as it's texture-based. The ornaments and pottery are a mixture of vector art and painting. Everything else is strict painting&airbrushing without references. The text in the book is the opening verses of "Ramayana" in Hindi... at least I hope so

Credits
* photo reference for the princess: ( [link] )
* stock photo for the carpet sxc.hu ( [link] )