Ladies of Grace Adieu

(fan art of one of Susanna Clarke's short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu)

[...] suddenly one of the owls cried out -- a hideous screech to freeze the blood.
Miss Tobias looked down and crossed her hands -- the very picture of a modest governess. "They do that, you know," she said, "to petrify their prey with fear; to turn it, as it were, to stone. That is the cruel, wild magic of owls."

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I love Susanna Clarke's writing style But unfortunately, I don't know how to do justice to her talent. I explored different drawing styles with my fan arts of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, because I have no idea which style would fit that universe best... I painted this one traditionally, and added a few corrections in Photoshop afterwards. Once it's scanned, the gold parts look... odd, to say the least, but I like her creepy face ^^