Recently, I have been working on my first book for the Y.A. market and this is one of the first character designs I've done.  Her name isn't actually Empress, I used that to sort of describe her character traits, but I think it suits her quite well.  Even if she doesn't end up in the final incarnation of the book, at least I've ended up with this lovely illustration to frame.

Done with mechanical pencil, white ink on Deleter paper.