their highnesses . . . ( early access )

So the short explanation of this drawing is that I started to redo some old OC drawings and got way carried away over the last few days XD 

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The slightly (aka much) longer explanation of this drawing is that I was looking through some old drawing folders and found some character concepts for a short story I wrote back in the day that I was starting to draw a comic of. 

These were the previous character drawings. I did them back in 2014 and I think you can probably assume from the roughness of these drawings, the WIP comic pages I actually did were... also pretty rough

I know I love to dunk on Past Jenn but damn Past Jenn XD

The aforementioned short story was one of the few I finished writing back in my young adult years (actually, pretty much the only piece of fiction that I ever finished when I was younger... I loved writing sprawling, over-wrought fantasies that -shockingly- never reached their ends because either I wouldn't know how to satisfyingly wrap them up or I'd just take so long that I'd get bored and shelf them). That short story was also a prequel to one of the lengthy, incomplete fantasies I'd spent years working on that was meant to explain the in-world magic and the divide between the two main kingdoms; tbh the fact that it had such a direct purpose probably helped me get from start to end in writing it. 

That's a lot of fumbling words to say that these characters are from a story that I spent a lot of time and energy on in my younger years and the concept has been (figuratively) in my pile of "ideas I might go back to if I ever decide to write/draw a comic". 

While I was progressing through this drawing, I puzzled out some details that I thought could make that "prequel" story more important in its own right and make it something standalone/something I could see myself interested in pursuing with where I am now creatively. Realistically, I have plenty of work on my plate that needs completion before I seriously consider pitching new projects but the idea of even really slowly working on a personal story in my own time to share if and when it is ever ready, is pretty appealing.

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If you are still here and reading (dang hi) I am now going to include a self-indulgent description of the characters and general story idea:

-Left: Miriam (29): the eldest of three royal sisters, and the current queen of the kingdom. She is dazzling in the court and a brilliant diplomat, both charismatic and more devious as needed. She is not someone to cross and takes great pleasure in setting her hopeful suitors against each other (she has yet to choose one)

-Right: Wyzimah (29): Miriam's younger twin by a few minutes, Wyzimah is the snake to her lion. A researcher of great intelligence and renown, she has devoted her life to scientific and spiritual study. It is said that while she is detached and cold in her work, in her private time she is known to frequent less-than-reputable enterprises around the capital.

-Middle: Kaitra (14): The youngest, Kait often feels that she was an afterthought on her parents' part and there is a noticeable divide between her and her sisters. She became their ward upon their mother's sudden passing and has spent much of her youth in quiet loneliness. She bears a white streak in her dark hair from the day of her mother's funeral, a day she can't remember but knows there was an assassination attempt on her and her sisters. She has been kept safely hidden away in the palace ever since and is very nervous/distrustful around anyone not on their innermost staff. She studies under Wyzimah's tutorage and (very occasionally) with Miriam on more diplomatic topics, though there is no illusion that she will ever ascend the throne. 

Three sisters inherit the kingdom's throne after the untimely (some might say "suspicious") death of their widow mother. Miriam, the eldest, designates herself queen, her twin, Wyzimah, pours her time and royal resources into rigorous scientific study, while Kaitra, their younger sister by fifteen years is... tucked away. 

It only makes sense that her beautiful, genius, sisters should take on the responsibility of the throne but more than that, there seems to be something they aren't sharing with Kait, an important memory that she's lost. She misses their mother terribly and as the years go on, it becomes more and more evident that she has something that her sisters want, something that can't be given or stolen but that could change the very nature of reality. 

Kait has the impossible task of outsmarting her sisters to discover and exorcise the secret that has poisoned their family, to finally reclaim the identity that was stolen from her all those years ago.