A new painting! Successfully finished to round out this year, that’s right, it’s Beka Cooper from Tamora Pierce’s Terrier, one of my all time favorite heroines! I’m still not 100% satisfied with the background, so we’ll see if I make any adjustments in the future, but I’m very pleased with the mess of characters I threw at myself! . posted on Instagram - https://instagr.am/p/CX1CTwcrKcc/
IN THE PERFECTION OF CONDUCT AND OF VIRTUES, PG-13, 9/?*
In the summer of 456, Maura of Dunlath takes up a post as Princess Kalasin’s lady-in-waiting.
“Do you think Roald will be happy?”
“I think he’s got as good a chance as anyone,” Maura says. Kalasin told her about the siege of Pirate’s Swoop a long time ago, on one of those early morning walks most of the others can’t stand, so it no longer surprises her how protective Daine is of the oldest prince and princess. “They like each other, I’m pretty sure. And they’re both kind people.”
“I know it’s all decided,” Daine says. She pulls a couple of pins from an inside pocket and sets about reordering her masses of curly brown hair. “But I can’t do anything to help him, you see, not like I can for Kally.”
Most of the stories about Daine in Carthak are true as far as they can be confirmed, Maura has long since learned from Sir Alanna. That includes the really outlandish ones about Daine bearing a goddess’s power to make the dead walk, which makes it even less surprising that every time Maura makes a kill on a hunt and reflexively mutters a prayer to Weiryn, Daine pops into Maura’s head. It wouldn’t surprise Maura if Emperor Kaddar were on his best behaviour for the entirety of his marriage to Kalasin, since probably the last thing he wants is a visit from Daine to be sure Kalasin isn’t being mistreated, but she doesn’t really like to think about it. When Kalasin is married, Maura will have to trust Lynet and Rohese to take care of her. And she will - she will - but she doesn’t want to think about it right now.
“Just between us,” Maura says, “promise me, if he hurts her, you’ll make him regret he’d ever been born.”
Looks like there’s some interest in a Tamora Pierce colouring book.
HMM.
I might have to try and make this happen… watch this space! I’ll see what I can do about making more illustrations like this.
Anyone have any suggestions for themes or scenes? I kind of like the idea of the heroines with their animal companions, but of course more ideas would be good too?
[The drawings above were originally posted here: Alanna,Keladry]
Finally finished this piece from several months ago! Better late than never. Keladry of Mindelan and her two horses, dog, and sparrow. It was nice to work on some traditional art and take a bit of a break from the digital.
Concept character sketches for Sir Lianokami of Conté, Crown Princess of Tortall (a main POV character), and my dragon oc (another pov character and kinda villain and uhhhh love interest??? ;)) for a fic I’ve been thinking about writing lately. In this au/fic, Dragons of very powerful and/or noble/divine lineage have the ability to take on a human(ish) form, though admittedly they Rarely do so bc they see putting on human skins as a degradation to their pride. When Magma'Ra, a direct descendent of a dragon god, is banished by her brother and cast out to the human realm and forced to permanently take on a human appearance, it’s not exactly what she was hoping for, not when she was in direct line to inherit instead of her brother. However, being a dragon in the human world isn’t all bad she finds, after all, she’s physically stronger and her magic more potent than the average human, and humans are so easy to manipulate and control with dragon magic/allure. Perhaps, until she finds away back to the dragonlands to challenge her brother for her rightful place, she can play around conquering the human realms? you know. For fun, to pass the time ;)
This wlw fic will feature both Liano and Magma'Ra as the main pov characters, and focus on their relationship. Liano is a very moral and straight-laced character, while Magma'Ra is literally a dragon and not confined to human morality measures lol, though Liano ends up being a positive influence on her, spoiler i guess haha. Anyway! Not sure if this is the sort of fic that is worth writing or if anyone would even be interested in reading it??? But it’s fun to think about :D Especially since I’ve had the headcanon for a while that powerful dragons in Tortall universe can take a human form, and it’s fun to play with that idea :)
hm.. a mystery is underfoot! A little excerpt from my Tortall Necromancer Fic (or comic?!) that I hope to write/draw one day! Right now I’m like,, seriously wanting to turn it into a full on long form fancomic but we’ll see
since i’m in a TOTAL Tortall fanart mood!! I’ve decided to work on a lil’ mini comic (just 3 pages) of a “scene” from my Necromancer Fic I want to write some day :) Featured here are Prince Jasson, and my oc Letty the Coroner (and secret Necromancer) :) hoping to finish this lil’ comic in my spare time :D
another Tortall oc! I know i only seem to post oc Tortall fanart haha but it’s bc creating Tortall oc’s is one of my favorite past times :) This is Lycia, an Immortal who now lives in the human realm after the events of the Immortal War… Her species is what you would get if you crossed a reptile, feline and humanoid together. The “nightmare” that so-called created her species was the human fear of things that move in the corners of your vision, and they are considered one of the origins of Night Terrors (one of the human names for her species) as her species is very fast, agile, and stronger than humans, mostly nocturnal, and are very sneaky and deadly when they want to be, making Lycia an excellent assassin. I’m not sure who he’s paired up with in canon, but in the little story i’m creating for her is that she falls in love with a human, Alan of Pirate’s Swoop (mostly bc i love the idea of Alan and Aly both being infamous for falling for the “not-quite-human” lol) though a romance between the two seems destined to have no future as they are, in fact, human and immortal and have different lifespans to boot…
Another Tortall oc for a fic i hope to (one day lol) write! Ammë, a baby elemental created by Chitral (from a sentient fragment of his consciousness) to keep him company in the absence of the Dominion Jewel. Curious and obsessed with humans, she eventually ventures outside of Chitral’s domain to explore the human realm. She has (limited) power over the earth (plants/flowers/etc, mostly tied to her emotions) and much more controlled power over the weather, gaining her the title amongst humans: “The Weather/Wind Witch” :)
(also her design is not final probably as about ¾ of the way through this i was like “Ah. Rapunzel” LMAO,, so yeah,, might play around with her design a bit more haha)
I’m always disappointed in the lack of Tamora Pierce fandom, particularly for Beka. She may be my favorite mc (controversial maybe, acab) and I feel like I never see her talked about at all.
Pierce’s world is incredibly deep while still being approachable, and realistic without feeling like “gritty grimdark.” Also the Provost’s Dog audiobooks are possibly the best in that universe, with some amazing accent work from the narrator.
Hey don’t insult Achoo like that! /j
But also yeah Pierce’s characters are good at depth, and Beka and Kel are two of my faves for being self-assured without crossing over into arrogant or impulsive (side eyeing Alanna). They’re thinkers who recognize tough decisions when they face them, and still strive to do what’s right and what’s smart.
Re-reading some books I read back in middle school about a girl who disguises herself as a boy to become a knight. She was my idol Now between scary health problems and the election she’s more inspiring to me than ever ⚔ . . . . #alannaoftrebond #tamorapierce #knight #femaleknight #alanna #tortall #fantasy #fiction #booktribute #fanart #illustration #character #girlpower #feminism
…you ever think about how much STUFF Neal must have gotten yanked into, as Alanna’s squire?
Like, I know we like to joke about Neal as the relative Non-Action Guy, at least compared to Kel. And there’s a tendency to write him as a Non-Action Guy (which I feel overlooks the hints we get in canon that while he doesn’t likefighting, he is still quite good at it, but…I’m digressing.) And, you know, he is definitely most at HOME with a book in his hands, and he can rattle off citations off the top of his head, and the kid is a nerd,I’m not discounting that!
But then this kid, this eighteen-year old, gets tapped as the squire to Alanna the Lioness.
Alanna “With divine aid, I fenced with a bunch of homicidal demons at the age of fourteen” the Lioness.
Alanna “I won the king’s tournament in Maren at the age of nineteen or maybe twenty” the Lioness.
Alanna, “sure I’ll fight a mountain for the Dominion Jewel”, the Lioness.
Alanna “I killed a maniacal regicidal sorcerer/swordsman, and when my twin brother resurrected him on a bet,I killed himagain.”
Alanna “I’ll be around until my next summons to fight a giant comes through” the Lioness.
Alanna “even a trickster god doesn’t want me hunting them down to have a chat” the Lioness.
takes on a squire.
Like, obviously, she takes Neal on to improve his healing abilities – but also, I feel like this is a hell of a compliment to Neal’s fighting abilities. Because there is absolutely no way that Baird, Jon, Wyldon, Wilina, or anyone else with any authority in this decision, thought that Alanna would stop finding trouble just because she had a squire in tow.
This is Alanna, she’s spent twenty years Looking For Trouble, And If She Can’t Find it, She Will Create It. And it’s a hell of a compliment, honestly, as well as freaking hilarious that her squire is a guy who would honestly like to just sit down and read a book (but he can’t, because Duty.)
I was nattering at Best Beloved earlier this morning about how one of the more amusing parts of the Wild Magic series, for me, is how long it takes Ozorne to realize that Daine is actually a threat.
Because sure, Daine is at Pirate’s Swoop, but so are Numair and Alanna, and she doesn’t do anything flashy…except summon a kraken, and then it’s Numair and Alanna who send the kraken away, so it’s reasonable to assume they summoned it in the first place.
And then sure, Daine is at Dunlath, but so is Numair (and later Alanna), and it’s Numair doing all the flashy things like ringing the shield like a bell and turning people into apple trees.
And also Ozorne has a bit of a fixation on Numair, so it’s probably pretty easy for him to disregard reports on weird squirrels.
And then when she gets to Carthak, she’s this shy little bird-healer who rescues drowning marmosets, and Numair and Alanna are right there and much flashier, and I’m pretty sure Ozorne thinks of Daine as being sort of…mildly entertaining. She’d make a good pet.
…And then of course he kills “Numair.” But Ozorne doesn’t actually know Daine can cause a zombie dinosaur rampage, mostly because Daine didn’t know that either, and so I suspect he doesn’t figure out it’s Daine behind all of this until pretty late in the hyena scene, honestly.
His assessment of her threat level must go from “1/10, rather amusing” to “11/10, extremely fucking dangerous” in about 30 seconds.
I don’t know why this is hilarious to me, but it very much is.
