OC Sideblog

Based on this comic. Berenice is a very logical thinker. This can be a strength or a weakness depending on the circumstances.

Scribes passing on their wisdom to their subordinates. The idea of keeping a 'steady hand' is important to them, and this is both literal (no wobbling when you write those important manuscripts!) and figurative (being level-headed and responsible).

Overall, I wanted the scribes' outfits to be visually homogeneous, and to look old-fashioned compared to what people wear at the royal court. (Pictures of that to come!)

Melissa notices the subtle signs of ageing and the similarities she shares with her late father, realising that she will soon be older than he ever got to be.

For some reason I can't leave the 'if I were a worm' meme alone.

Hey, remember that John Mulaney joke that was relevant about 200 years ago? Anyway, here's Frederick being a horse boy. Perhaps Melissa could get him interested in knights by telling him they rode horses...

I was going to have the scroll trailing on the ground, but I soon realised that Constance would not let that happen.

Queens traditionally wear a kirtle in their house's colour, and their gowns are always purple. There is a jewel on the crown for each Great House (I haven't yet decided how many of those there are).

This was kind of inspired by all those posts about undiagnosed parents insisting that everyone has that problem and you should stop complaining. The file is saved as 'skill issue' on my computer.

The basic idea behind this is that Henrietta, having been raised with private tutors, has not been to college, so Constance arranged a party with her old college friends and invited her along. I was going to get into Constance's (ulterior) motive for this, but the explanation was gettting too long. I'll revisit that later when I do the scene with the scribes planning the party...

On the left is Lady Adelaide and on the right is Lady Eleanor ('Nellie' to her friends). Adelaide's sash is based on this outfit, though you can't really see it in this picture. It's known as the 'scarlet sash', and the King's Scribe and Queen's Scribe wear it.

Yes, another art piece about the ribbon. It came to mind that Renée actually wore the pink ribbon much longer than Melissa did, but she (like me) still thinks of it as 'Melissa's ribbon' - which is why it's always drawn in pink.

A small Melissa from my drawing drafts book that I thought was a vibe