Morning Doodle: “The others’ eyes were locked on the statue, but before Nikolai could yank the cuff of his glove back into place, Zoya glimpsed the dark veining at his wrist pulse black“ (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “In the valley below, Zoya could just glimpse the sprawl of Kribirsk in the distance and the glimmer of the dead white sands that had once been the Shadow Fold beyond. They were close.” (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: Pretty Tired

Morning Doodle: “Look,” said Tolya, and she heard new reverence in his voice. Black tears ran from Lizabeta’s eyes. They gleamed hard as obsidian, as if they’d frozen there or been cast in stone themselves. (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: Yuri’s face was ecstatic. “I wanted to believe. I did believe, but this…” Zoya realized he was weeping. “Be silent,” she bit out. “Or I’ll stuff you back into the coach myself.” (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “A statue of Sankta Lizabeta stood before the entrance. A riot of red roses had burst through the stone, cracking open her veiled skull. The flowers tumbled over the statue in wild profusion, surrounding its marble skirts in a wide circle like a pool of blood.” (KoS CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “They emerged at the top of a high, mounded hill next to a cathedral surrounded by scaffolding, its golden domes gleaming in the late-afternoon sun.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “That squash is as wide as I am tall,” Nikolai said beneath his breath as he smiled and waved. “And twice as handsome.” “Half as handsome,” he protested. “Ah,” said Zoya, “but the squash doesn’t talk.” (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: Black Nail-Polish

“The village was like all the others except for the pretty lake it overlooked. This time they’d been greeted by an off-key band and a parade of livestock and giant vegetables.” (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “How can you be so sure?” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “Of course it has,” said Nikolai, “But such displays are beyond even the Apparat’s considerable reach. It pains my pride to say it, but there may be something at work here that’s bigger than both of us.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “Has it ever occured to you,” Zoya said, watching the skinny monk talk animatedly to a beleaguered-looking Tolya, “That this is all contrivance?” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “They’d let Yuri emerge from the coach to stretch his legs and see the supposed miracle site, Tolya towering over him like one tree that had refused to fall.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

No Morning Doodle Today! I’ve let my life go awry lately, so I’m taking the week to stitch it back together (getting my car fixed, sorting through paperwork, finishing projects, moving furniture, etc). Will be back next week though, see you then!

Morning Doodle: Long-Standing Feud

Morning Doodle: “The trees all lay in the same direction, like bodies laid to rest, as if pointing them west toward the Fold.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Late Night Doodle: “It was an eerie sight. The smell of sap was heavy in the air, and the trees had fallen in perfect lines all the way to the crest of a hill that overlooked a tiny chapel dedicated to Sankt Ilya in Chains.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “She wore a dress of blooming roses that blossomed and died in curling vines around her body. Her golden hair was a buzzing mass of bees that swarmed and clustered around her radiant face.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 15)

Morning Doodle: “You should poison the choirmaster for inflicting that atrocity on us,” Zoya grumbled. “They were adorable.” “They were flat.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Late Night Doodle: Shapes

Late Night Doodle: “Zoya and the rest of Nikolai’s party”…“endured the singing of a children’s choir, and then had tea with the local choirmaster.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Late Night Doodle: “Zoya and the rest of Nikolai’s party rode through the barley fields and inspected the new armaments factory” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Late Night Doodle: A Gift for the Grim Reaper

Morning Doodle: The boy in the library…

Morning Doodle: Baby Nikolai looking down the hall as he feeds the dog his last piece of steak

Morning Doodle: “But could she blame her mother? She remembered Sabina’s raw hands, her tired eyes, the gaunt lines of her body—perpetually weary and without hope.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “I dreamed of being a soldier.” “Little Zoya with a bayonet?” Zoya sniffed. “I always had the makings of a general.” But her mother had seen only the value in her daughter’s beauty. Zoya’s face had been her dowry at the tender age of nine. (Bardugo’s KoS CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “I thought the draft was seen as a curse.” “For some,” Zoya conceded. “But for others of us it offered an escape, a chance at something other than being someone’s wife and dying in childbirth.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: "Do you know what changed everything in my village?" She kept her eyes on the road, rutted with holes and broken rocks from the previous night's rain. "The draft." (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “It was hard not to look at these muddy streets, the gray houses with their warped roofs and slanting porches, the tilting spire of the church, and not think of Pachina, the town she’d left behind. She refused to call it home.” (Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: Sturmholdillyscribble

Morning Doodle: Grab!

Morning Doodle: She could sense Nikolai’s scrutiny. “I’ve never known you to have much sympathy for the common people.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: Air Pressure

Morning Doodle: Ritual

Morning Doodle: "Is that why you push so hard for the new factories we're building?" Zoya gave the barest shrug. (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “Hopeless. Hungry. Desperation makes people do ugly things, and it is always the girls who suffer first.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

No Morning Doodle today, just tryina stay afloat right now, but hopefully I’ll have some time to doodle next week!

Morning Doodle: “I grew up in a place like this,” Zoya said as they entered the next bleak backwater. (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11) Artist Notes: I really just wanted to draw baby Zoya on her way home with a bag of stolen peaches and a chicken of unknown origin.

Morning Doodle: “The people would not think of the priest when they said their prayers and heard the church bells chime. They would think of their golden king and whisper of the day he’d come to their village.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: Portrait of a Steel-Spined Harpy

Morning Doodle: He vowed to build a new church there, paid for with Lantsov gold. “And where will all the money actually come from?” Zoya asked that night. “The Kerch? My wealthy new bride? Maybe the Apparat can sell off a fancy altarpiece.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “In Ryevost, where the great earthqake had struck, Nikolai stripped down to his shirtsleeves to work side by side with the men of the town, moving rubble and raising beams.” (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “Though he and Zoya took pains to hide the urgency of their mission, they rode hard each day and never spent more than a single night in any location.”(Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: Keeping Secrets and Hiding Schemes Artist Notes: Back to Regularly Scheduled Weekly Friday Brainrot!

Morning Doodle: Hello everyone! I’m stepping away from Morning Doodles until end of May in order to be able to take on a larger-than-usual workload irl. If I miraculously find time to draw Zoyalai, I will stockpile them until May 30th. See you then!

Morning Doodle: “The prince had praised Isaak’s gift for languages and suggested he cultivate the talent now that it was time for Isaak to leave the front.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 16)

Morning Doodle: Nikolai Lantsov in his Infantry Era, clothing reference for myself.

Morning Doodle: “He’d earned the respect of the military by serving in the infantry before becoming an officer, and the medals he wore pinned to his chest were not ceremonial but battle-won.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)