I'm somewhat inspired by Marlene Dietrich lately, the crossing gender and sexuality roles way way back in the 30's and the infancy of the silver screen. And that inspiration transitions well to Rionnah (I'm liking this spelling slightly better than the other)

Rionnah is another character I've been wanting to do a major redraw of, and I'm pretty happy with the result this time. I've also done some further work on her character, history, and place in the story, making her a more developed character and all that. so here's her in a bit of a Madame Lefoux moment (read the Parasol Protectorate) the only real issue i have with this drawing is the new sketchpad I used...it seems canson's paper tends to either near impossible to blend pencil, or is super easy to blend, and therefore smudge. as a result there's a lot more finger prints than I'm happy with.

Rionnah is very single, fairly wealthy, extremely eccentric, and utterly unwilling to be forced into convention. She's an antique and curio dealer primarily, but makes a mint as an expert on antiquities and history, and largely, advice for people with more money than sense who want to look impressive to their equally clueless peers by having a home filled with genuine artifacts from history. you want to know if that statue is genuine? Rionnah will know, she'll know who did it, she'll know when he did it, she'll know the model he used for it. chances are she'll even know how much he sold it for. For this expertise, she charges an obscene amount, and moves through the social circles of those who'd generally consider themselves her betters. She's usually abrasive, often rude, Imperious, and occasionally condescending to her clients, and has even been known to walk out in the middle of a project if she feels she's being treated less than demanded. her skills are such that even so, she's in high demand and rarely pauses before moving on to the next client. She in many ways occupies the role of an actress or opera singer, an amusing outsider, not really belonging, but interesting and fun to have at parties. That she's not actually one of the upper crust actually allows her to be more wild and scandalous, allowing the tops to live somewhat vicariously through their inappropriate guest, while still maintaining their supposed superiority.

She's fond of more masculine cuts of feminine clothing, though not to the extent she'd pass as a man (given her very hourglass figure, that'd be pretty hard anyway) and she doesn't want to be treated as a man, simply as equally as one...actually, to her, more equal. and woe betide anyone who would treat her otherwise. everything about her is a statement of "don't try to pigeonhole me"