Complaint of the Lioness

One of my all-time favorite authors is Tamora Pierce- and of all her series, the dearest to my heart is The Song of the Lioness Quartet.  In fact, those books and the effect they had on me is a large reason why I'd rather write YA than any other "genre"- I want to be able to touch someone like I was touched.

Anyway.

Today's doodle comes from a scene in the second book, In the Hand of the Goddess, in which Alanna has decided (for the first time since she began training to become a knight over six years prior) to try dressing "like a girl".

Oh MAN- totally didn't even color the trim on the right sleeve.  WHOOPS.

The actual passage reads:

"It doesn't look right," Alanna objected, trying to hold her body rigid while she turned her head.  "It looks like Squire Alan in a dress."
"That's because we've done nothing with Squire Alan's hair.  Hold still!"

That scene always cracks me up, especially the idea of 'doing something with Squire Alan's hair'.  I didn't have the book with me when I drew this, and I'd forgotten the whole "body rigid" thing- I was just picturing her expression as she looked herself over in the mirror...

 In the past when I've doodled Alanna (especially young Alanna- she's sixteen here) I've tended to make her, well, kind of a string-bean (one of the easiest ways to imply youth).  But as I started to sketch this out the thought occurred to me that, by this point in her training, Alanna would be pretty well muscled.  As an adult she's described as "stocky"- so I tried to imply some of that beneath the dress.  Her body really should be fairly boy-like at this stage, especially when compared to the other noble women of her time.  In fact I may have over-exaggerated her bosom- but I think I'll forgive myself for that (even if she wouldn't).