sunnyfiny22

[sunnyfiny22]

"My husband is dead," she said, with finality, "and my daughters will be raised proud children of the Tswana here, not as beggars in England."

Naomi Novik, Empire of Ivory

I finally managed to colour Lethabo and Kefentse, my beloveds! I just love the way the Temeraire series contains so many unconventional woman leaders.

(By way of apology, I really wanted to make her dress historically accurate, but it seems I screwed up: googling Tswana traditional dresses turned up a lot of very pretty indigo printed shweshwe fabrics. Which - as I found out AFTER I’d whipped out the watercolours - were only introduced into South Africa in the mid-1800s. Oopsie. There is a brief history of Tswana clothing here.)

#temeraire #empire of ivory #lethabo #hannah erasmus #kefentse #artistic license

[sunnyfiny22]

Temeraire time again! Lethabo and Kefentse, based on a prompt I spotted in this year‘s Temeraire summer exchange.

#temeraire #lethabo #kefentse #still sketchy #horns!! #kefentse as an elephant warthog cross

[sunnyfiny22]

At this rate of increase in his appetite, even if Temeraire proved willing to accept cured meat, he might exhaust their supplies before they reached shore. It would be very difficult, he felt, to put a dragon on short commons, and in any case it would put the crew on edge; though Temeraire was harnessed and might be in theory tame, even in these days a feral dragon, escaped from the breeding grounds, could and occasionally would eat a man if nothing more appetizing offerred; and from the uneasy looks no one had forgotten it.

Naomi Novik, His Majesty’s Dragon

Finally got round to colouring this before Inktober rolls round again 😅 Laurence and baby Temeraire enjoying the breeze back in the day when Laurence still had a lot to learn about dragons...

#temeraire #naomi novik #william laurence #teeeeth

[sunnyfiny22]

Unfinished sketchadoodle of Laurence and baby Temeraire enjoying the breeze

(Temeraire is like ‚weeeee!‘ and Laurence ‚good god these are his milk teeth?‘)

#lets see whether I manage to finish it #want more drawing time #ugh backgrounds and hands #temeraire #do dragons have ears? #or milk teeth?

[sunnyfiny22]

Alice. https://www.instagram.com/p/B47tvviA6Ph/?igshid=5a4pr6qi5ccv

#other people's amazing art #alice in wonderland #chris riddell #drawing goals

[sunnyfiny22]

So he was obliged to walk through the rain, sceptre in one hand, orb in the other. The diadem he put on his head, as the most convenient place for it, and attired in this fashion he walked home.

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

For Inktober ‘enchanted’ - poor Stephen Black

#jonathan strange and mr norrell #autumn reading #that's the end of the inktober spam I didn't manage any more

[sunnyfiny22]

She was sitting, propped on many cushions, on a soft round couch at the center of the great round blossom. She was looking straight at him. She seemed infinitely frail and delicate. Atreyu could see how ill she was by the pallor of her face, which seemed almost transparent. Her almond-shaped eyes, the color of dark gold, were serene and untroubled. She smiled. Her small, slight body was wrapped in an ample silken gown which gleamed so white that the magnolia petals seemed dark beside it. She looked like an indescribably beautiful little girl of no more than ten, but her long, smoothly combed hair, which hung down over her shoulders, was as white as snow.

Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

Inktober “Frail” - the Childlike Empress

#children's books #neverending story #beautiful writing

[sunnyfiny22]

Emboldened by this first success, he embarked on other purchases, of silk and other porcelain, and after that a small pendant of jade, which Zhai Wei, his facade of disdain gradually yielding to enthusiasm for the shopping expedition, pointed out to him, explaining that the symbols upon it were the start of the poem about the legendary woman dragon-soldier.

Naomi Novik, Throne of Jade

For Inktober “Legend” - Hua Mulan

#temeraire #mulan #a girl worth fighting for

[sunnyfiny22]

"I wonder," he said to himself, "what's in a book while it's closed. Oh, I know it's full of letters printed on paper, but all the same, something must be happening, because as soon as I open it, there's a whole story with people I don't know yet and all kinds of adventures and deeds and battles. And sometimes there are storms at sea, or it takes you to strange cities and countries. All those things are somehow shut up in a book. Of course you have to read it to find out. But it's already there, that's the funny thing. I just wish I knew how it could be." 

Suddenly an almost festive mood came over him. 

He settled himself, picked up the book, opened it to the first page, and began to read.

Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

Almost there with the inktober sketches - for “Misfit”, it’s Bastian Balthasar Bux.

#reading #children's books #fantasy #looove books about books

[sunnyfiny22]

“Poor Eliza! – to be only just tolerable.”

My attempt for inktober “catch” got no further than this little sketch of Lizzie and Charlotte Lucas taking the measure of the (eligible, male) neighbourhood.

#pride and prejudice #jane austen #it's not even ink #but just #some days

[sunnyfiny22]

Inktober “treasure” - Granby and Little

...probably sharing a fond farewell along the lines of “don’t let that mad dragon of yours run you into a world of trouble and try to come back with all limbs attached” “...of course, why wouldn’t I...??”

#temeraire #john granby #augustine little #love these idiots #happy (!) granby

[sunnyfiny22]

If Ruby had learned anything in Holy Wood, it was that there was no use in waiting around for Mr Right to hit you with a brick.  You had to make your own bricks.

Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

Inktober “husky” - Ruby the cantina singing troll :D

#discworld #terry pratchett #moving pictures #ruby the troll

[sunnyfiny22]

Inktober “Swing” was some Jeeves & Wooster

#jeeves and wooster #music #1930s #ok jeeves actually hates Bertie's trombone playing

[sunnyfiny22]

Inktober prompt “ring” -

Jemima from BBC’s Ghosts

#ghosts #bbc ghosts #little plague girl #hands down the only scary ghost at button hall

[sunnyfiny22]

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart!“

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre 

For inktober ‘dark’

#jane eyre #inktober

[sunnyfiny22]

Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant 'idiot'.

Inktober “Mindless” was a no-brainer: Twoflower and The Luggage

#twoflower #the luggage #discworld #terry pratchett #the colour of magic #shout-out to the imp

[sunnyfiny22]

more belatedly scanned inktober sketches

for “bait” and “snow”: Alex Cold and Nadia Santos (with Borobá) from Isabel Allende’s “City of the Beasts” and “Kingdom of the Golden Dragon”. My  favourite books when I was about 12 and they still have a place very close to my heart :)

#young adult books #isabel allende #city of the beasts #kingdom of the golden dragon #the best bit was the monkey having to wear a thermal jacket #and of course kate 'not your granny' cold #did i mention yetis???