Imperatrix

The usual Seth Nightroad, the Empress Augusta Vladika, from the novel/manga “Trinity Blood”.

My gallery was definitely in need of a drawing worth of the name. I always say that I love details, studying the references, spending time on the projects… but my sketchbook is full of unfinished attempts or minor things. My DA friends deserved much more!

I’m just sorry the subject isn’t very original for my gallery ^^’ but I’ve always toyed with the idea of trying a very detailed Empire fanart; I swear, I’ve aimed for other characters at first, but with no success. (how I wish I could portray Suleyman… .___.)
As for the outfit, I opted for something that could be more unusual, and more challenging. This is the very beautiful and intricate outfit from Kiyo Kyujo’s “Together with grandmother” side story, TB vol. 13 (this one [link]). I tried to figure it out as much as I could, but I also took some liberties: while I’ve drawn some details the way I would make them for a cosplay (which will never happen, don’t worry XD), some other parts of the dress aren’t as they should be in “reality”. As you can see, I did include some Thores-style features, like a bigger hat, the veil, and the floating armour.

It took me a week to finish the lineart (not a non-stop drawing week, of course! XD), and another one to colour it. Most difficult part? The floating armour: I had to draw it on tracing paper and then add it behind her back to sort out how the thing worked. I’ve also tried to improve a bit my shading style, but meanie scanner ate up everything as usual.

Thank you for your visit and for reading this!

- pose referenced from this [link] base, by ~WeroNoYume
- pattern for the red lining from this pack [link] by ~masterjinn