botanicaxu

[botanicaxu]

We celebrated 20 years of Cosmere in Shanghai with an epic meet-up on May 1st!​​ We turned a cozy café into a fandom hub—complete with life-size character stands, a ​​custom cake​​, exclusive merch and artbooks, and even a prize draw. The event also marked the ​​debut of Simplified Chinese edition Arcanum Unbounded, and we had over ​​20 board games​​ set up for people nerding out. Dozens of fans showed up, making the whole day a great success. I had the honor of creating the ​​main visual for the event and I'm glad to see everyone bonding over Cosmere. Huge thanks to all who came! ❤️

[botanicaxu]

These are the six characters I drew for Cosmere’s 20th anniversary! (Vin/Kelsier/Kaladin/Shallan/Hoid/Shai) They’ll be at the Shanghai meet-up on ​​May 1st​​ as life-size standees and will become swag for the event! (Anime style on purpose XD)

It’s been ​​12 incredible years​​ of diving into the franchise, and I couldn’t be happier to celebrate this milestone. Happy 20th, Cosmere—here’s to many more!

[botanicaxu]

Here's my second try on Ulaam and yay for his appearance with Hoid in WaT XD (Slightly adjusted my former design of him to make him look less scary.)

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Some Kelsier doodles!

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So it's a very much delayed piece for the Chinese new year featuring Shallan & Jasnah buying new year flowers 💐

I was too occupied lately to finish this one before the new year period ends… I think it's okay to just treat it as a normal hanfu AU!

This year is the year of snake 🐍, just as what we see with Shallan's headdress! The flowers before them are moth orchids, usually prepared during new year in Chinese-speaking regions. Also, orchid translates as "兰" (lán) and it's the second character of Shallan's name (沙兰), which is why I chose the very flower XD

Also, I'm kind of let down with Shallan's quite limited interactions with Jasnah after Oathbringer. I really miss those days when I drew them together and this piece is a revival ❤️

Below is a sketch for study!

[botanicaxu]

A whole fantasy version six fanarts meme from several years ago but I finally finished it! The characters are:

Achamian (The Prince of Nothing)

Moiraine (The Wheel of Time)

Vaelin (Raven's Shadow)

The Fool (Realm of the Elderlings)

Alabaster (The Broken Earth)

Dandelion (The Witcher)

[botanicaxu]

Hello Botanica I admire your art so much ❤️ do you mind giving tips on how you improved your art over the years? I would also be delighted if you could show us what your drawing process is like a little bit, if not thats cool too🤗 have a great day!!✨

Hey there! (*waves*) Thank you so much for the love <3 I'd be happy to share some insights on the topics you mentioned! (Sorry that it took a while.)

I think I’ve been drawing for almost 20 years now (Whoa!). Honestly, I don’t even know how I made it through, but ever since I was a kid, I knew art was a necessary part of my life. Looking back now, I’m just glad I stuck with it!

This piece is like a visual timeline of my art evolution. It’s wild to think I went from those super basic kid doodles to the style I have now. Growth is real, y’all!

So the tips! (They are mainly for those hobbyist artists, since I don’t have the luck to make it as my career.)

Keep your eyes and mind open to learn from different fields. It’ll spark fresh ideas and enrich your art, but always double-check when diving into unfamiliar territory.

Find tutorials that vibe with you, and collect references IRL.

Use primary sources to avoid distorted or AI-altered refs.

Take your own photos as ref.

Use 3D websites like Sketchfab, Blender for 3D assistance, and posing apps or manikins to help with your art.

Practice consistently. Balance your time between quick sketches and more polished pieces.

Accept where you are now and improve from there. Don't let others' opinions or other artists’ activities throw you off your path.

If art’s your hobby, the goal is to have fun! No pressure to push boundaries unless you’re feeling it.

Let’s move to drawing process. I’ve been doing hand-drawn art for more than a decade, but had to fully switch to digital media after 2016. Now I usually use Procreate for sketches and lines, then use Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop for colors and adjustments.

I’m gonna share two sets of process. One is for generic character art, and the other one is for pieces influenced by environment.

So character art is like:

(More under the break.)

Do some (very) rough sketch to locate the characters → Line art

Define coloring section → Do flat basic colors, adjust the tone via gradient map, change line color

Add more details, use airbrush to shape the volume → Rendering (layer mode: multiply, linear burn)

More rendering (layer mode: screen, overlay, soft light) → Post effects

Done!

The next is art influenced by environment:

Make a color sketch to set the general tone → Line art

Flat basic colors (background & characters) → Darken the art (layer mode: multiply), add more details

Add more details and begin rendering → More rendering, lighten some parts (layer mode: screen)

More rendering, use gradient map to adjust the tone → Post effects

Done!

Wow, this turned into a long post! Hope you found something useful here! Thanks for sticking around till the end! 🙌✨

[botanicaxu]

Happy New Year to y'all! 🎉🎉🎉

Here's my entry for the local fandom's new year fanwork marathon, some typical Alethi food with SA characters having fun, based on the photo shot by my friend Maggie (who also made the meal)! It's really a wonderful collab XD

The characters are: Dalinar, Rock, Lift, Yanagawn, Adolin, Renarin, Gavinor, Navani, Szeth, Kaladin, Shallan (and that white-haired guy).

Bon appetit!

[botanicaxu]

Congrats on Wind and Truth release!!!

This is a collage of all the countdown pieces I've done and I hope you enjoy the journey and brace the ending!

It's really a looong ride and I've been following the series and doing fanworks for over a decade. It's just incredible to see the first arc come to an end!

Well, this is absolutely the fandom where I've stayed the longest. The series has been with me from college, through grad school, and into my career as an editor. It helped me through my toughest times and even led me to become its translator. I really want to say thanks to the Dragonsteel team and all the fans I've met for the support and shared love for these stories ❤️

[botanicaxu]

Here's my last piece for the (delayed) WaT countdown!

Guests for the final day: Kaladin, Syl & Szeth

Hope you enjoy the book! (The countdown is done and I'll update the complete group pic later.)

[botanicaxu]

Didn't catch up with the WaT release day but I need to finish the countdown art!

Guests for the day before last day: Dalinar, Navani & Gavinor ❤️

[botanicaxu]

3 days to WaT's release!

Guests for today: Shallan, Jasnah & Wit (My favs!)

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4 days to WaT's release!

Guests for today: Renarin & Rlain (Especially for the fandom!)

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5 days to WaT's release!

(Let the countdown begin!)

Guests: Adolin & Yanagawn (For the Azir plotline!)

[botanicaxu]

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter - The Returning Scene

My second commissioned piece for 17S! This one was quite delayed due to some skin issues with my right hand (which is why you haven't seen me draw much this year) and it's finally finished!

I still largely enjoy drawing YatNP stuff and for this one specifically, I made a fake manga magazine cover to evoke the feeling XD

(The last two pieces are discarded drafts.)

[botanicaxu]

Here's my entry for this year's Cosmere Mini Bang!

Collab fic writer is the amazing YourLocalTiredTruthwatcher @localtiredtruthwatcher

The fic is titled "I'll Keep You Out of the Dark (If I Only Could)", featuring Jasnah & Elhokar, the underappreciated siblings, with their behind-the-main-screen stories (which I'm really intrigued to read but hasn't been much covered in the canon text).

The fic is well-constructed and we also have some baby Gavinor. Read it to the end and you might find yourself cry hard 😭

It's quite fun to do fic art. Thanks so much for the opportunity!

[botanicaxu]

🔥 ZINE PREVIEW 🔥

This piece by @botanicaxu shows the diverse bending styles of many beloved characters! Dive into the generations of ATLA/LOK by checking out what our zine has to offer.

🛒 ORDER HERE!