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Wheel of Time fanart by me - Elayne

Finally broke my painting block. And it’s Elayne, our favourite Daughter-Heir of Andor! Child of Morgase Trankand and Taringail Damodred. Sister of Gawyn, half sister to Galad, and Rand’s OG girlfriend.

I’ve illustrated her wearing the outfit she was described as wearing when Rand first meets her in Eye of the World.

“A deep blue velvet cloak lined with pale fur rested on her shoulders, its hood hanging down behind to her waist with a cluster of silver bells at the peak. They jingled when she moved. A silver filigree circlet held her long, red-gold curls, and delicate silver rings hung at her ears, while a necklace of heavy silver links and dark green stones he thought were emeralds lay around her throat. Her pale blue dress was smudged with bark stains from her tree climbing, but it was still silk and embroidered with painstakingly intricate designs, the skirt slashed with inserts the colour of rich cream. A wide belt of woven silver encircled her waist, and velvet slippers peeked from under the hem of her dress.”

I’ll talk about my choices and interpretation below the cut!

I'm sure I'll look at this tomorrow and want to fix/change things, but that's why I make the sigil versions! Gives me a chance to rework things I didn't like.

WHEEL OF TIME PORTRAIT COLLECTION: Galad - Clean - Dirty - Sigil (will link to separate post) Rand - Clean - Dirty - Sigil (will link to separate post) Berelain - Clean - Sigil (will link to separate post) Morgase - Clean - Sigil (will link to separate post) Bela - Clean - Sigil (will link to separate post) Thom - Clean - Sigil (will link to separate post) Elayne - (You are here)

***BOOK SPOILERS BELOW***

After the struggle I had painting Thom, I went right back to the books before I thought about who to paint next. I wanted a clear description of what a character was wearing so I was guessing as little as possible, and I remembered that Elayne gets a good introduction in EotW.

While Jordan describes a lot of details, there’s very little in the way of style actually mentioned so educated guessing is necessary to an extent.

The “wide belt of woven silver” is one such educated guess. I’ve treated it like the belt is metal links. I assume it is actually metal because it isn’t described as say, “silver leather” or “silver thread”. I think in later books female characters wear chain belts, so I’m assuming that’s what Jordan was thinking here.

The silver filigree circlet is pretty clear. It’s just the pattern I guessed, and how it’s actually sitting on Elayne’s head.

I didn’t go exactly with what the passage said about her necklace, because a necklace of heavy silver links sounded really chunky, and I didn’t think Elayne would be running around with a big ass chunky necklace while she was climbing trees.

I was reluctant to paint her blue dress because I’d already done Berelain in blue, but there was no avoiding it. When Jordan talks about slashed skirts, I believe this is what he means. I can’t remember where I’ve seen that style before, but I think it used to be quite popular in fairytale picture books and older fantasy? I added the cream panel to the bodice because the dress looked lacking without some sort of detail there.

The intricate designs, I assumed were like a brocade, so I’ve added a rose pattern overlay, because roses/rose crown etc.

I didn’t really give her curls, mostly because I’m lazy, but her hair is wavy, and it’s strawberry blonde, a bit lighter than I did Morgase’s, because I thought when I want to do Gawyn, he has to have the same hair colour, and I don’t think he’s ever described as a full on red head. (Also got me thinking about Trakand/Damodred/Mantear phenotypes vs genotypes and polygenic traits. Thinking back to the punnet squares I learned in high school human biol, we have to assume that Taringail carries the recessive gene for light hair mutations. This is expressed in both Gawyn and Elayne, but not Galad, who inherited the dominant dark hair/eyes genes. Which would make sense, since Tigraine must be double recessive, which is why Rand comes out with grey eyes and red hair. Morgase has a similar genotype as Tigraine. Sorry. I don’t know why I think of this kind of shit. But, where did Taringail get the recessive eyes/hair that expresses itself in his Trakand kids? And does Moiraine have it? Because if we knew that, we could possibly trace it back to whichever parent passed it on. Moiraine and Taringail are only half siblings. Asking the important questions here.)

BUT I DIGRESS.

I wanted to paint an Elayne that looks sweet and kind and that people would fall in love with and follow as their queen. And cute enough that people will put up with her bullshit. I swear, in the later books when she took all those dumb risks, I wanted to slap her! She was getting people killed left, right and centre! Could you imagine what a disaster Andor would have been with her as Queen and Gawyn as the First Prince of the Sword? The Trakand-Damodred kids have questionable decision making skills. It’s no wonder Elayne hates on Galad so much; he doesn’t seem to be the type to tolerate her bullshit.

I’m finding a new appreciation for these characters as I paint them, and I feel like I like Elayne more now. I guess I’ll see if that feeling lasts when I do a re-read and get to her pregnancy chapters.

Thinking about who I’ll do next, but it’s probably going to be Gawyn so I can complete the Andoran Trakand-Damodred royal fam set. I realised I’ve already got both of Tigraine’s sons, the Mantear-Damodred-al’Thor line (oh, but not Moiraine yet if I’m doing sets of houses!)

Stay tuned!

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