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)

Morning Doodle: “Someday we’ll see an end to war, and then you and I will take a nap together.” “Is that your idea of seduction?” “These days? Yes.” “I’ll be honest—it’s incredibly compelling.” (Leigh Bardugo’s Rule of Wolves CH31)

Morning Doodle: “He did not wear the full military regalia and sash that his father had favored but instead the olive drab coat that was standard-issue for soldiers of the First Army.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “Zoya traveled with the outriders.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “His stillness was so complete she found herself pressing her fingers to the hollow beneath his jaw, seeking out the molasses-slow beat of his pulse. Dosing him was like watching him die every night.” (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “I suppose the secret is that I cannot stand being alone.” He uncorked the concoction. “But there are some places no one can go with us.” He touched the bottle to his tongue, and Zoya snatched it from his hand as he fell backward, plummeting into the dark (KoS)

Morning Doodle: “Tell me how you manage it. How do you survive all of this glad-handing and unending performance?”(Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “The sedatives they’d given him in the past had been simple potions that had made him softly blurry and often left him snoring before Zoya had departed the room. But with this new brew, Nikolai dropped into unconsciousness in the space of a breath—” (KoS CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “Koja bowed and made his compliments to Lula’s shiny feathers, the purity of her song”…“and on and on, until finally the nightingale stopped him with a shrill chirp. “Next time you may stop at ‘please.’ If you will only cease your talking” (The Too-Clever Fox)

Morning Doodle: “He pointed out larks’ nests and wild geranium, and caught a field mouse for Oncat, who seemed too spoiled to do any hunting of her own.” (Leigh Bardugo’s Ruin and Rising CH 14)

Due to LA Wildfires: No Morning Doodle today! Was right against an evacuation prep zone yesterday, so I’m keeping an eye out for changes, since the fires spread so quickly. I am completely packed for evacuation if necessary though, so no worries guys I’ll be fine!

Morning Doodle: “Once Nikolai had removed his boots and settled on the bed beneath a grotesque painting of Sankta Anastasia curing the wasting plague, Zoya pulled the tiny bottle from her pocket.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “You don’t look remotely fatigued. It’s not normal.” “I think fatigue suits you, Zoya. The pallor. The shadows beneath your eyes. You look like a heroine in a novel.” “I look like a woman about to step on your foot.”(Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “But Zoya also knew that her presence—tart-tongued and sour as it might be—changed the atmosphere in the room, made the conversation seem less a negotiation than a friendly exchange.” (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)

Morning Doodle: “And here it is, our final night alive as the earth burns to the ground” (As the World Caves, Matt Maltese)

Morning Doodle: The Herring Thief

Morning Doodle: “Why should I bother?” she grumbled at Baron Levkin’s dacha in Kelink. “Your charm is enough to carry the day.” “They need to see my general,” he said. (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 11)