Poised for the Strike

This entry is for Tomb-Raider-Groupies Tomb Raider Memories contest . Category: Traps and Danger

I have been waiting years for a contest just like this one...based on our memories playing Tomb Raider. Now, as a lover of all the classic TR games, it was very difficult for me to pinpoint just one favorite memory. But, Tomb Raider 2 is my absolute favorite game, so that made it a bit easier to narrow down. (For those of you who have not played it, I feel very sorry for you! Find a way to play it, you'll be hooked!)

One memory that really stood out to me was the eerie spider cave in the Temple of Xian level. Now be honest with yourself--you knew you were totally freaked out when you were surrounded by pitch blackness and the only thing you could see was that giant glowing mutant spider egg sac floating above your head! When those huge spiders start attacking, who wouldn't be ready to whip out that grenade gun and blow those spiders back to hell?

This painting was made with much painstaking love. I use the TRLE and therefore have access to texture files, of which I pulled colors from for my color pallet here to make it truly authentic. I drew Lara traditionally, scanned her and colored her separately from the rest of the painting. I also had to add eerie green lighting to her and the spiders, which was a lot more challenging with a tablet than I had anticipated. (You see, I am a life long colored pencil artist so this was new territory for me.)


This is my third ever digital painting, and boy was it a learning experience. Please forgive my beginner techniques at digital painting, if this were colored pencil it would have been done weeks ago.

Painting Soundtrack: Just Push Play by Aerosmith www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ5dAv…