Weekend Sketches #15 - Princess Nova, The First Mage

October 2, 2022

A digital drawing of a tall and very femme woman seated with her legs crossed. She has long radiant orange and red hair, like the colour of flames, and freckles on her face. She is wearing a sheer shawl bordered by a gold trim, and on her arms are pitch black tattoos in the shape of flames. She daintily holds a longsword in her right hand while resting the index finger of her left against the side of her face in thought.

Earthshine is mainly a story about a duo, but there are a few important secondary characters who make their mark on the whole narrative. One who has a particularly big impact is Nova. She arguably turns the duo of Sol and Nyx into a trio, but only in the back half of the story.

A black and white sketch of Sol, Nyx, and Nova as a anthropomorphic dog, cat, and fox respectively.

I would love to share more about her here but I run the risk of spoiling the whole first arc, and I’m learning that I should probably stop doing that. I do still want to name her ahead of time. I have been drawing a lot of art as I develop her character in preparation for her future debut, and I really want to post a bunch of it with some context to point back to haha. I think I just have a habit of introducing powerful and charismatic high femmes late in whatever narrative I’m writing. It’s like a sick joke I keep playing on myself.

Three black and white digital halfbody sketches of Nova posing.

Nova has gone through a few design changes before I settled on her current look. Honestly what has helped me flesh out Nova’s personality was sticking her in a sci-fi AU where she, Sol, and Nyx are travelling on a spaceship together doing deliveries and/or smuggling shit.

A drawing of Sol, Nyx, and Nova dressed in their sci-fi AU outfits. Sol is wearing coveralls and holding a potted plat, Nyx is dressed in a jumpsuit and hoodie and holding a pair of pliers, and Nova is dressed in a captain's uniform with a hand resting on her sword.

The nuts and bolts of canon-Nova is that she loves swords, is a mage just like Nyx, and is a big fan of patricide. The rest will come as I start churning out this story.

Thanks for stopping by!

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