A rider poses with his Plainscow mount in full regalia, the Dividing Plains, Westruun - Tourist's Guide to Tal'dorei
My work for the latest @artists-guild-of-exandria project! I knew I wanted to do an old-timey 'posing with my magnificent livestock in a field to show them off' style painting. There was not a whole lot of information on Plainscows to work off of - just that they're 6 feet tall, used as mounts and empathetic. I don't know if the person who wrote that understood how freaking huge a six foot tall cow would be, but for the record - they're ginormous. I had to keep shrinking the saddle because I realized just how tiny his rider is next to him. Otherwise I had a lot of creative liberty as to what it would look like. I ended up combining the traits of wildebeest, yak, and aurochs, to try and make an animal that looked like a cow, but more fantastical. As for the saddle I looked at Mongolian saddles for reference. The rug and other trappings drew a lot of influence from Tibetan yak saddles and adornment. I kind of want an excuse to turn him and his rider into new characters. I just don't know what for yet.