#iron widow

[sarahlizziewrites]

I'm reading Heavenly Tyrant and this meme has been pinging around in my brain like the dvd logo

[heavenly-memerant]

[untitled-kiwi]

they’re all safe and happy and healthy I SWEAR all of them are alive

[cringelord-minato]

Zetian seeing Yizhi's reaction to seeing Li Shimin for the first time:

[that-one-raccoon]

Rendered concept for Liang Yuhuan's outfit and crown!

i have so many sketches of her actually, and I adore working with her color palette

[peerless-cucumber]

finally started heavenly tyrant and my guy qin zheng is doing absolutely no wrong trust me

[shayminlucario07]

"A society that takes care of its own does not produce children who dream of burning it down."

-Xiran Jay Zhao, Heavenly Tyrant, page 208

(Not saying who says that line to avoid spoilers)

[incorrect-ironwidow]

[catastrophicallie]

Finished Heavenly Tyrant and my main takeaway rn is that if Qin Zheng wasn't so possessive he could've had not just a ruthless thicc murder wife but also a ruthless pretty boy strategist husband and a hunk nerdy cinnamon-roll-who-can-kill-you husband.

Like man could've had the most ruthless polycule by his side ruling Huaxia and he fumbled it.

[coikoi1]

[xiranjayzhao]

Some truths about the publishing industry because I certainly got blindsided when going in. Now I'm so broken by this industry I struggle to encourage aspiring writers lmao

[heavenly-memerant]

Wu Zetian moodboard

[isanarte]

50 Shades Of Red

Another commission for @xiranjayzhao about their Iron Widow book! This time a lil fun 50-shades meme about their Iron Widow sequel, Heavenly Tirant, I cannot wait until it's out this december!! I'm so hyped!!!

Patreon | Ko-fi| INPRNT

[daisymooonart]

May my Emperor live ten thousand years!

An (un)official painting of the Emperor and Empress of Huaxia. I would absolutely bow for Wu Zetian. Maybe not Qin Zheng, but he is hot and communist so I am tempted.

This took me around 15-20 hours to make and it was so worth it <3

Details under the cut!

First off: the faces.

Because of how obscured it was going to be, I wanted to get a good sense of what Zetian would look like before the makeup and the mask. I tried to give her a kind of average appearance, because I wanted to try and make her look like a normal person under all of that Empress garb (she's only 18... she should have been at the clurbbb). Her face is purposefully a little asymmetrical.

For makeup, I went for the blush-that-makes-you-look-drunk look that was apparently fashionable among Tang ladies. Her lips and yedian are pretty standard. I saved the xiehong on the wrong layer like a clown 😭 but it's still visible under the mask. Not entirely sure if her huadian would be accurate, but it's the one on the painting of Empress Wu that I see most often.

Would Qin Zheng have a stroke if he saw Zetian hang out with men wearing this mask? Absolutely. Am I Qin Zheng? Nope I'm an artist who spent wayyyyy too long drawing Zetian's face and didn't want to cover it up fully. Her haircomb is in the shape of an upside-down butterfly. The sharp bit on the collar is inspired by a shirt I saw in the Hunger Games once, it's a style that's supposed to force you into keeping good posture. I hc that Qin Zheng included it to piss her off, and it's definitely working...

Now for Qin Zheng's face. I tried to go for a simple, smooth-wing look. I never really envisioned him as twink-y when I read the book and tried to go for a hot-and-scary-man look whilst keeping it a little bit androgynous. He'd never ever have his hair down for a formal painting but I want to separate his face from the rest of the piece. His eye is weaker on his scarred side. He looks a little feverish and a little bit infuriated: he is probably wondering why the hell he needs to be painted when photographs now exist.

It's a very busy painting and I fully expect people to gloss over this, so here's a little zoom on Qin Zheng gripping Zetian's armour. He's a freak.

Now for the throne. I tried to do a dragon/phoenix piece but it didn't show very well in the actual painting, so here it is. You can really tell how much I love scribble art lol.

And here's the base of the throne, with two dragons to keep our lovely tyrants company

I opted for a double-seated throne because I accidentally drew them too close together and couldn't move them because of the layers because feminism <3

Now for clothing. I noticed that on the HT cover, Zetian has a white gem whilst Qin Zheng has a black gem, but the clothes underneath are the opposite colours. I made the details on Qin Zheng's armour white and Zetian's details black, but Qin Zheng's armour ends up being darker whilst Zetian's armour is a lot paler. Symbolism... or something... Also they both get a heart because its cute, like a friendship bracelet.

I really can't draw scales though so erm. Yeah.

If you notice any er,,,, imagery in their lower robes it was unintentional I swear

Even though Qin Zheng is very much the taller, dominant figure in the piece, I tried to actually put the focus on Zetian, by making her armour a different shade of gold to the throne and by keeping her closer to the centre. I don't know if it worked but my eyes think so. I think out of the entire piece though, Zetian took me the longest because I hadn't settled on what look I was trying to go for her. I redrew her armour about five times, but thankfully by the time it was done I had pretty much solidified where I was going with Qin Zheng's armour and I finished that in no time.

Again I absolutely loved making this painting, it was SO worth it. It might me my most detailed ever. I adore Heavenly Tyrant so so so much it might actually be my favourite book ever lol.

[that-one-raccoon]

Finished Heavenly Tyrant, so I did a few sketches

I so desperately adore drawing her

[else-creates]

So I didn't preorder "Heavenly Tyrant" by @xiranjayzhao because of the delays, I just decided that I'd get it online or in person when it was released.

I genuinely thought it came out at the end of this month, I didn't know it had already been released until I saw it on a shelf today.

My girlfriend managed to swipe it out of my hands before I could pay for it though.....So now it's a Christmas present.