The Secrets of Jin-Shei

i don't know whether to say that i hate this picture for how it turned out or that i've grown rather fond of it over the 6 months that we've been acquainted. xDDD

this is fanart of a marvelous book called The Secrets of Jin-Shei. it's set in an ancient chinese-esque land where two types of communication are practiced, one for men and one for women. (this type of segregation actually did exist in some part of ancient china, and was the inspiration for the setting of the book.)
anyway, women can become sort of non-biological sisters called "jin-shei-bao" with one another, and it's considered a stronger bond than blood. all the girls in the picture are jin-shei to each other: a [dead] princess (top), an empress (far right), an alchemist (black), a healer (light orange), a sage (purple hair), a gypsy (yellow), a rebel leader (pink), a warrior (armor), and a seamstress (middle).


materials:
paper mate clickster
micron pens
crayola pencils
prismacolor pencils
liquimark note-writer
pentel gel roller
photoshop 7.0 (minor cleaning)