Here's Julieta in the AU I'm working on. Originally I was gonna have a flashback to when Agustin met Julieta as kids, but by the time I got to writing that chapter, it was no longer plot or thematically relevant and I told instead of showed. But I had already drawn teenage Julieta so what you gonna do. Pretty happy with the way 25 year old Julieta turned out, especially the skirt of her ballgown.
As usual, ramblings and reference photos under the cut!
I need to fix some of the line work on Felix and the OC's, but I don't have my tablet right now. I'm planning to save Pepa's character sheet for when I post the first chapter, so this might be the last one I post until I am ready to start posting the fic.
God help me, in the throes of insomnia (don't skip your meds kids) I figured out how I could make the sequel, which I definitely don't plan on writing because I already have so many WIP's, but I figured out how I could center the story around the relationship between Bruno and Julieta. It would be so good, I can't do this to myself. I would have to do so much research, but... oh my god. I have to. The only other option is to fridge characters, or the plot will feel incomplete.
And that's why I'm posting Julieta! Because she is apparently the star of my next fic I guess! Here are my references:
With the ballgowns I went for more of a vibe based approach, because these are supposed to be not just historically accurate ballgowns, but Disney Princess Dresses. For example, when researching I didn't see a lot of pleated skirts on fancy party dresses, but it works well with the herb embroidery. And I decided against using a more accurate hairstyle, because none of the hairstyles I saw looked compatible with natural hair. The ruffles and fancy sleeves on the other hand, as you can see, those came in and out of fashion in the mid 19th century. When I drew this I had just read a timeline on when those details were in fashion, but that was like a year ago now.
She's still a healer in the AU but her magic is a lot more spell based so she can do a variety of things she can't in canon. Like use magic to do a diagnostic spell, or transmute poison into its own antidote. She carries around very plain shortbread cookies and will use the cookie to carry specific spells like one that doubles the restorative properties of any sleep you get in the next few hours.
Julieta herself was a bit of an internal conflict for me. I'll admit, my decision to make her slim in her twenties was affected by my hatred of diet culture and anti-aging culture. I know that sounds backwards, but I think we need to normalize gaining weight as you age. Like you would think it would be normalized because people are constantly talking about how they gained weight as they aged, you would think we all just kinda know that's what happens, you age, you gain weight. But no, people still act like its some grand tragedy. It drives me up the wall. Like I wanna shake people by the shoulders about it. So yeah, in my head every character, except I guess Pepa, is like 50% heavier in their fifties than they were in their twenties. And they're happy that way!
