I don't hide the fact that Mapleshade is one of my favorite characters. I think she serves as a cautionary tale of the power grief has... The world pales when its thorns entangle and snare and twist so tightly that even a garden bares no beauty.
In another sense, I also wanted to show the Dark Forest "growing" out of Mapleshade's dying breath. She's enraged and repulsed by it, unaware that the very event that set her down this path will ironically further separate her from gaining any closure.
It's been quite some time since I did one of these, so I hope you like it. I think I've got slightly better at the rendering part but this took me three times as long as previous pieces because of my current work schedule + all the layering it demanded.
boiling hot take but i literally dont give a fuck that mapleshade let the clan believe her kits were birchfaces. her clanmates can be mad but exiling a queen and her kits is fucking deranged i dont care what lie she told. “she deserved what she got” her kids deserved to die because their mom fibbed??😭 her kids deserved to die because their mom did crimes LATER???😭😭 “um but she chose to cross the river” if i was orpheus i would simply not turn around.