DISCUSSION: the gilded wolves art

Today’s the second-to-last day of #thegildedwolvesreadathon, and the goal for today is to share anything creative that you made for The Gilded Wolves! I’m sharing a scrapbook that I made for the book, as well as pointing out all the random details I put in. This is a long post, sorry!

This scrapbook includes my hand-lettered quotes, as well as random maps I picked up from when I visited Paris a couple of years ago. You can also see more edits/graphics I made for The Gilded Wolves last year in my review!

Disclaimer: you may NOT repost my art in any way without express permission. I forgot to put watermarks in the original image, and frankly I’m too lazy to go back and do it, but that does not mean you can share/repost my art without permission.

All quotes are from The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi.

Please let me know if the images won’t load! You may have to refresh your page a few times, but if it’s still an issue, please tell me below.

page zero

This is the outside of the booklet! I used a shimmery green piece of scrapbook paper; to keep the whole booklet together, I hole-punched all of the papers and tied them together with a piece of gold string.

page one

This is the opening page that only features the hand-lettering I did of the title The Gilded Wolves. I tried to imitate the cover with the leaves and flowers.

page two

This was the first page where I actually had to put more of a layout together. I honestly had nothing in mind when I started it, which is why it’s pretty much random scraps of things together. I was actually fairly disappointed by how it turned out, but I decided to forge ahead anyways.

one.

This is a quote from the author’s note at the end of The Gilded Wolves. It reads:

History is a myth shaped by the tongues of conquerors.

two.

I glued rose petals that I dried a few years ago to the pages. I tried not to use too many because I still use the petals in pictures sometimes.

three.

Another line from the author’s note. This one says:

Question what is gold and what glitters.

four.

The cut piece of paper with text was taken from a map of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (I think? I suddenly can’t remember). It had the text in three different languages, so of course I included the French part here.

page three

This page took FOREVER to do despite the simplicity (I explain why below), but I liked how it turned out, which was good considering I didn’t really like page two!

one.

It’s hard to see in the picture, but this was a gold piece of paper that I used one of those paper cutters to stamp out the stars. The quote reads:

Forging was a power of creation rivaled only by the work of God.
But one house fell.
And another house’s line died without an heir.
Now all that is left is a secret.

two.

The reason why this page took so long was because I had to individually glue every little star to the page, which took forever to do. I actually had to stop for the day after this because it took so long and I was exhausted by the time I was done!

three.

These are the names of the four houses: House Kore, House Nyx, House Vanth, and the Fallen House.

four.

If you’ve read the book, you’ll know that the Eye of Horus plays a big part in it! There’s actually a clue where the characters have to put the symbols together like a puzzle, so I knew I had to include it.

page four

one.

Séverin’s page! I used the ~fancy font sticker for him because, well, Séverin is all about the aesthetic.

two.

The ripped piece of paper is a map of the different floors of the Louvre! I liked that it kinda looked like a floor plan that they’d use in an acquisition. I used the other half in a later page.

three.

Another one of my hand-lettered quotes! It reads “He could give them enough to stay,” but the full quote is:

He could give them more than just something to tide them over until the next acquisition. He could give them enough to stay.

The way that he knows that all of them would leave once they have what they want, but also the way he wants this newfound family to stay together is just so…

four.

I didn’t like the blank space here so I chose a longer quote that I couldn’t hand-letter (because it was too long). I don’t write in cursive for long spurts very often, so this took a little to get the hang of. It reads:

Maybe then every day wouldn’t feel like this. As if he had once known how to fly, but the skies had shaken him loose and left him with nothing but the memory of wings . . . He knew what he was going to do. What he needed to do. As he walked out the door of his study, a phantom ache curled between his shoulder blades. As if they craved the weight of wings.

page five

one.

This is Laila’s page! I really love how it turned out.

two.

This is violin music from a song I don’t remember the name of lol. I don’t even play the violin (I play the piano; the reason I have violin music is because I played the violin medley in orchestra when I didn’t have a part), so I thought it would be fine to rip up the music.

three.

The pink page with French writing is from a children’s booklet about Marie Antoinette and Versailles. I’m not sure exactly why I grabbed the French one, but it came in handy here!

four.

This hand-lettered quote reads:

She was Laila. The girl who made herself.

five.

Little cupcake stickers because Laila loves to bake! Fun fact, I’ve had the stickers for so long or because they’re cheap (probably both) that I had to glue them on because they weren’t sticky anymore.

six.

The green section is a scrap from a map of the gardens at Versailles. Honestly, all of the designs for the maps and brochures I got were so well done; this map was a little bit like a watercolor painting.

seven.

This tea set was Marie Antoinette’s! Or at least, I think so because it’s from the same children’s booklet as item three (above) and I can’t read French so.

eight.

Laila’s stage name is L’Énigme. I was toying around with the page with the gold circular frame, not quite knowing what to do with it but wanting to use it since I had already cut it out. I finally landed on using the butterfly sticker with Laila’s stage name printed out and really loved how it turned out. On one hand, there’s symbolism with it because pinning a butterfly and labeling it depicts the way people commodifies beauty something something Laila only being accepted because of her status as a beautiful cabaret dancer. I’m going too deep with this but mostly it’s just pretty.

page six

one.

Now onto Zofia’s page! Her letter is clear-cut and bold, as well as color-coordinated.

two.

This hand-lettered quote says:

Knowledge would make her brave. And more than anything, Zofia wanted to be brave.

three.

The page with the flowers and the other ripped page is also from that children’s booklet on Marie Antoinette and Versailles (I clearly got good use out of it for this scrapbook).

four.

The typed quote reads:

Fear grew in places unlit by knowledge.

and it goes with the hand-lettered quote! This is the (almost) full quote:

When her parents were still alive, they said that fear grew in places unlit by knowledge. Perhaps if she had more knowledge, then she would not know fear. She could become a scientist or a professor…someone who spent her life rooting out the dark unknown with the light of knowledge. She could be like her parents. Like her sister. She could walk down a street or through a crowd. She wouldn’t know that tight, breath-pulling sensation of drowning, all because someone had asked about her day and she didn’t know how to answer. Knowledge would make her brave. And more than anything, Zofia wanted to be brave.

page seven

one.

This part has a full-page hand-lettered quote. It says:

Wolves were everywhere. In politics, on thrones, in beds. They cut their teeth on history and grew fat on war.

two.

This wasn’t meant to be a full-page spread, but when I was doing the hand-lettering, I couldn’t fit all of it on one page without getting really cramped. However, I didn’t want to only do one half, so I split the quote into two. I worry it reads like “don’t dead // open inside” but I also wasn’t about to redo it.

page eight

one.

My favorite historian, Enrique’s page!

two.

This was a long quote, but it’s one of my favorites from the book. In fact, the title of my blog was “myths and palimpsests” for a bit! Honestly, the full quote is a bit long for a hand-lettering, but I love it too much to not include it. It reads:

Enrique, who had always dreamed about what magic might feel like, thought he had found it then: myths and palimpsests, starlight sugaring the air, and the way hope feels painful when shared equally among friends.

three.

The three cut pieces of paper are taken from the same map of Musée d’Orsay (see: page two, part four); this is the Spanish translation. I chose this because Enrique is biracial (Filipino and Spanish), and his character is very much rooted in the Spanish colonization of the Philippines and the aftereffects of that: Enrique being an outsider in Europe because of his Filipino background, yet him also being an outsider with his family and the Filipino society he wants to join it because he presents as white.

four.

The ripped black snippets of paper are from some random booklet on a specific artist from Versailles (I’m really too lazy to track it down again rip). It was a timeline of the artist’s life that I thought was very fitting for Enrique’s role as historian. If you look closely, you can see the dates.

five.

The typed quote reads:

Hope was a thin thread inside him, but Enrique reached for it anyway. It was all he had left.

page nine

one.

Next up, Tristan’s page!

two.

The darker green part is cut from the same map of the gardens of Versailles that I used on Laila’s page (page five, part six). The white ripped pieces with text are from (again) that children’s booklet on Marie Antoinette and Versailles that I used on Laila’s page (page five, part three) and Zofia’s page (page six, part three).

three.

The lighter green pieces are from that same children’s booklet; it’s also a map of the gardens of Versailles but in more of a cartoon style. I liked how bright it was, and it fit with the color scheme I was planning for Tristan. Clearly, I tried to use as much garden imagery for him since his Forging affinity is plant matter.

four.

I put this scrapbook together before I reread The Gilded Wolves and I hadn’t read it in a few months, so I just flipped around for a quote for Tristan. This one is somewhat random but I liked it; it says:

“What about you, Tristan? What do you want?”
“This,” Tristan said quietly. “Just this.”

and honestly, I teared up a little :’))).

five.

This says:

I protect you.

aka Séverin’s promise to Tristan! I’m not sure how well you can make it out, but it’s written on green graph paper that came from some random notepad I picked up at an event for creative purposes yet never used until now.

six.

This was supposed to look like those fancy tags that you use as decorative purposes in scrapbooks and the like. It didn’t turn out great per se, but I was too lazy to redo it after I had to color the darker lines in with a felt tip pen because my black markers keep running out of ink.

page ten

one.

Hypnos’s page, because yes, he still gets one. Again, I used the fancy font sticker and the bold floral print because he too is all about the aesthetic, much like Séverin. A lot of this page ties in with Séverin’s page, honestly, in an attempt to call attention to them somewhat being narrative foils (they’re both biracial, born out of wedlock with French fathers and mothers whose home countries were colonized BY the French; they’re both heirs, although Hypnos rises to patriarch while Séverin is tossed out; etc.).

two.

This little scrap of paper says,

House Nyx, I honor you.

and I am incredibly proud of it because I free-handed it without trying yet it still came out very neatly. I clearly have my priorities straight.

three.

More violin music! It’s from the same song as Laila’s page (page five, part two), so again, I don’t remember the song. I’m not sure why I glued it sideways; probably just for the Look.

You’ll notice that the purple border at the top is the same paper that I used in Séverin’s page. Again, this was to tie their pages together thematically since they’re foils.

four.

Another example of me matching Hypnos’s and Séverin’s pages because I am just that heavy-handed (THEY’RE FOILS OKAY!): this is the other half of the map of the Louvre that I used in Séverin’s page (page four, part two).

five.

The typed quote reads:

Make yourself a myth and live within it, so that you belong to no one but yourself.

six.

The crescent moon is House Nyx’s icon! The small, ripped pieces of paper are meant to be clouds. You can see more violin music here, as well as the same black piece I used for Enrique’s page (page eight, part four) just because ;). There are also little gold stars sprinkled around the moon, if you look closely. I also put star stickers on the other side.

seven.

This typed quote says:

When we were little, I thought we’d grow up and be kings or something. A whole kingdom to divide between us.

which, again, is evidence of the two of them being foils. I never said I was subtle.

page eleven

one.

We’re done with the character pages, so onto the random quotes I hand-lettered just because I liked them! I actually didn’t choose quotes to hand-letter for each character; in fact, I just chose my favorite quotes from the book and they ended up matching to almost every character. This one reads:

If you’re furious, let it be fuel.

two.

The typed quote says:

When you are who they expect you to be, they never look too closely.

and the hand-written quote (in my messy cursive) reads:

Just don’t forget that enough power and influence makes anyone impossible to look away from. And then they can’t help but see you.

Séverin gives the best pep talks honestly!

three.

The shiny parts didn’t photograph well, but they’re supposed to be mirrors! It’s actually silver origami paper that I glued to the back of those flower borders (which were taken from a random notepad I got for $1 and cut the middle out of).

page twelve

one.

Possibly my favorite quote from this book:

I think the greatest power is belief, for what is a god without it?

Like,,,Roshani did not have to go so hard!!

two.

All of this is taken from the prologue. I wanted to fill the whole page but was too lazy to type and print it out, so instead? I decided to hand-write (almost all of the prologue, it didn’t quite fit in the page) it. Again, I don’t write in cursive in long spurts, so this got particularly messy towards the end (or the middle honestly).

Well, that was a long post. What did you think? Did you like this post?

Did I just thoroughly explain my scrapbook for no reason? Again, please let me know if the images won’t load!