tousle-headed poet

Heavenly One

Leshwi for this little series I’m working on from time to time. Also wanted to share this playlist I listened to while painting….

-jasnah kholin - the Stormlight archive @brandsanderson

Illustrazione dedicata a Jasnah, ancora non ci credo che non avevo disegnato questa Dea ✨️

"It was time for Harmony’s Sword to do his job."

Watercolour and mixed media on Fabriano cold-pressed paper.

Four days ago a thought about Ati and Leras meeting in the Beyond occurred, and it very quickly turned into an idea for a comic.

+ I am contractually obliged (best friend's instructions) to include the OG sketches, so I'll pop those into a reblog.

Kaladin vs the Shardbearer in gold

I am a big fan of the first book, and especially this fight! So I always wanted to draw something from it :3

I hope I did it justice - drawing the armor is always so difficult 😮‍💨 also Kaladin in green just feels wrong xD

And so - I took the opportunity to draw a Stormlight archive sona-oc? I didn’t have any new original characters for a while now but I wanted something related to Stormlight 🥰

⚠️ Minor Spoilers! These are out of context and only loosely based off of things that happen in the books, but I figured they needed a warning still.

Vin and the kandra dog she didn’t want

He’s so supportive of her daily murder activities. Bless him

ERA 2:

Marasi, Wax, and Ranette. This is their ritual. This is something they do. They stand in the Field of Rebirth and lament that the Ascendant Warrior never held a gun. No one can convince me otherwise.

You can probably guess which gun Wax brings with him each time.

I mean, I'm pretty sure it has to do with unconscious bias. Racism and colourism permeates society so it's kind of hard to avoid. I invite you to take a moment to consider.

It's easy to see how a character that's been de-masculated by Alethi society because of his epilepsy, and is quiet and shy, is getting drawn as Asian. And not just Asian but short and exceedingly slim, in soft uwu styles. Compare to art of his brother and father, which tends to skew white. Canonically, Renarin is leeky. So yeah, slim, not as tall as the tallest men on Roshar, but it makes me 😒 when he is drawn so tiny and soft. It draws on stereotypes of East Asian men as small and feminized; these depictions don't even reflect his character. In canon, Renarin is trying everything he can to be masculine while staying true to who he is. He's training and studying. He's putting his life on the line in battle. He has Shardplate! And yet I have never seen one piece of art of him in battle or in his Shardplate. So yes, he has epicanthic folds, but he is not tiny or feminine (if you're going for canon Renarin. And even if you're not please consider what stereotypes you may be drawing from when you are feminizing him).

Meanwhile Jasnah (outwardly cold, aloof, Strong Woman who is incredibly emotional underneath) is often drawn with medium brown skin. I'm not saying this is wrong! I'm just saying that the people who are generous with making a tan-skinned character brown are not (on average) drawing her brother, mother, or father that brown. It makes me ask why is it so easy to characterize Jasnah in particular as brown-skinned? Is it because there's a stereotype of brown-skinned women being Strong and Cold and Mysterious and Exotic?

Which brings us to Shallan. She's a favourite character for white female fans to project on to. She's even described in canon as having red hair and pale skin which every white person seems to read as "Irish". However, no one in canon comments on her Shin eyes--that's because she has epicanthic folds like everyone else. Further, light-skinned Asians and Wasians and Arabs and Pacific Islanders also exist. We can do better as a fandom imagining her.

And finally Adolin. The sheer volume of fans who read "handsome" and translate that to "White" is honestly astounding. Find men of colour handsome or die by my sword. 😤⚔️