WeiryWriter

Hello, hello! As the last rays of the Scadr-- er, Northern Hemisphere's summer touch down upon the land, and fall's rains and mists come to conquer the land, we have a (mostly)... somber piece for you. Our patrons wanted to see Wax's breakdown from the end of Shadows of Self, and that's what we have here. August's art commission comes to you from the ever-amazing-to-work-with Eli Gardor, who not only did a fantastic job at capturing Wax and Steris, but managed to sneak a bunch of little details in the background too, for the thorough observer. See how many you can spot (See the original post on our Patreon)

It feels like it's been some time since we did a bigger piece here, with the May one taking a while (while we'll stop bringing up; it's shaping up to be as good as many of the paintings you see inside the leatherbounds, so it'll take as long as it needs to), and the June one being a series of small subjects. So why don't we slingshot in the other direction and go big? Our patrons voted for New Seran in the July art poll, and New Seran we deliver! The city is not awfully important for the plot of The Bands of Mourning, and is usually mostly known as the location of The Hotel Scene (though it is also where Wax meets with Kelesina Shores), but it is a visually stunning location, with its tiers of rocky plateaus and cascading waterfalls. We've wanted to get Lyraina (Twitter) to paint an environment for us for a long time, and this was as good of an opportunity as we were ever going to get - especially since she graciously gave us a massive discount for this one piece. So, enjoy the city whose people think that Harmony must've been showing off when he was shaping it.

All good things must come to an end, friends, and - since the June commissions have definitely been good - we must bring this art reveal season to a close. So feast your eyes upon the Bands of Mourning, which are definitely bands that were definitely worn by the Lord Ruler, everything about the legends is true, don't worry about-- hey, what are you doing with that statue's spearhead?! Oh well. Wayne broke it, sorry. No Bands, I guess, but have this nifty definitely aluminum spearhead - plus one of ReLuur's photographs evanotypes, as a bonus over on our public Patreon post. This final June commission is brought to you by a fan artist who needs no introduction, it's Shuravf (Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr), whose work already graces many a Coppermind page. You know the deal, go give her thumbs ups and hearts and stuff.

Another week goes by (not that we are committing to a weekly schedule!), and another June illustration rises over the horizon. Like a moon. On planets that have one. Of which Sel is one. Anyway, no one comes to these posts for the witty commentary, so as you’ve likely cleverly deduced, this piece is the Moon Scepter of the Rose Empire - a subject we absolutely had to give to Botanica (Twitter, Tumblr) whose iconic work has been in the fandom since its very early days, and you can most recently find in the Kaladin album (digital) art book. They are present on pretty much every art-related website, so go give them a thumbs up and a heart!

Those June art pieces just keep on coming, don't they? Let us know if you'd like us to do more of these simpler but more numerous art commissions in the future - we were thinking we'd those maybe once or twice a year, but art reveal season is fun season! And speaking of, this week we've got the King's Drop for you all! Paintweaver (Instagram, Tumblr) is another artist we've wanted to work with for a long time, and the relative simplicity of this illustration (plus scheduling luck) finally gave us this opportunity. The illustration is absolutely gorgeous, and the shifting smoky images inside it are an amazing representation of the captured Thrill. Fingers crossed that the Kholins keep this safe and don't go and, I don't know, throw it in the ocean or something! We've got a few more versions of this, with slightly different colors and backgrounds, and we'll release those to our supporters some time in the future, once art reveal season relaxes a bit.

Hey, in case you missed our news post earlier this week, Brandon has released a new novel! Lux: A Texas Reckoners Novel is out now, exclusively on Audible. Lux was co-written with Steven Michael Bohls and produced by Mainframe, Brandon’s audiobook company with Max Epstein. The first four chapters are up on Brandon's youtube channel, alongside a short "behind the scenes" video with Brandon, Steven, and Max where they discuss the making of this Audible Original. Steven also appeared as a guest on one of Brandon's livestreamed signing sessions. As with most of his releases, Brandon sent out a newsletter to announce the new book, but he slipped in a few other juicy tidbits as well. Most notably is the "Newsletter Exclusive Fiction" segment, where Brandon shared an early draft of the Prologue of The Lost Metal. He also read the prologue at JordanCon last weekend (which has been transcribed over on Arcanum). Next, the Brandon Sanderson online store is no more! In its place a new contender has arrived, Dragonsteel Books. The rebranding is still in progress but keep an eye on the store and its communication channels over the next few weeks. (Which communication channels these are exactly isn't entirely clear, but it probably would not hurt to follow Brandon's twitter account.) Also, with the Kickstarter fulfillment being largely wrapped-up, (unsigned) hardcovers for Dawnshard and The Way of Kings Prime are available now! If you missed out on the Kickstarter and want to pick one or both of these up, act fast. Dragonsteel will not be reprinting these. However, Brandon said they will be coming to UK websites at a later point (and I suspect, like Edgedancer, Tor will eventually release it).

Friends, this week we have a treat for you! Nozomi Matsuoka (Instagram, DeviantArt) might not have the largest of Cosmere fanart portfolios, but the quality of her work speaks for itself. You might have seen the commissions she’s done for Argent (Jasnah, because of course he is going to commission a Jasnah, but also this excellent Maya from a critical Rhythm of War scene), and this time we wanted to see what painterly wonders she will come up with if we gave her what was arguably the most challenging June commission - the gems and spheres from Roshar. We had high hopes for her, and she easily exceeded them in a pair of illustrations - one showing a myriad of gems and spheres carelessly spilled over a desk that might be Navani’s (which you can see below); and one that shows off a lot of the intricate details of each denomination, plus a few different types of Light... You can check that one out over on our public Patreon post, along with all the other artwork we've commissioned thus far!

It’s but a few days until JordanCon, and with a lot of the Staff going, we thought the time was right to treat you to another one of our June art commissions. We’ve been fans of Elisgardor’s art (Instagram, Twitter), and have wanted to commission her for an illustration (i.e. Argent has been itching to get his greedy grubby grabby hands on some of her art), but she’s been busy… until recently. When we approached her with the list of winners, she immediately gravitated towards the idea of painting Vindication on a backdrop that looks like her blueprints, and friends, she blew our socks off! Not only was her artwork incredible and timely, she was also a joy to work with, so make sure you press all the Internet buttons on her socials. We’ll have a lot of behind the scenes and progress shots from this commission for all of our patrons too, so you have that to look forward to! If you want to get a better look at the blueprint itself, or if you want to get in on the action of choosing what we commission, check out our Patreon!

Hello again everyone! It’s been a little while since we last showed you art, so let’s remedy that. Tied for 5th place in our June poll, with 11% of all votes, was the seon box from Rhythm of War. We chose a friend of our site (and a patron), Connor Chamberlain (Instagram), and he delivered - plus, he threw in a fancy soul-harvesting dagger in there as well. Go give him your love!

Hello everyone, the wait is finally over. Last month you voted for a scene from the climax of Elantris, where Raoden saves his people from the Derethi. Without further ado here it is. For this we reached out to the amazing Shuravf who has done a ton of terrific cosmere fanart. For this piece she set out to do something a bit outside her comfort zone and so in addition to the standard piece above she did a comic-layout remix of the scene. It turned out amazing and you can check out a fully realized version (with text!) over on her Twitter! If you like her art you can also follow her on Instagram and tumblr! Thank you again for all of your continued support. And check out our Patreon for a few more variants of this piece!

Hey everyone, earlier this month you voted on our next Coppermind Art piece and it is officially ready to share! Your choice was a scene from Part 1 of Rhythm of War where Renarin saves Kaladin from Moash. We reached out to rspixart (who fans of the podcast may remember as the artist for the glorious depictions of Rlain and Renarin we fawned over in our Rlainarin/Corrupted Truthwatcher episodes earlier this year). Unsurprisingly, she did an amazing job and we are so glad to be able to share it with you! Check back this Thursday where we will have another poll for you, featuring the Nine (as last month's runner-up) and several other fun choices. Once again, thank you for your continued support. Not only have you maintained the $500 goal so we can continue doing this, you have pushed us over $600 for this month! This is truly mindblowing to all of us and we are grateful.

Earlier this week, Dynamite Entertainment, the publisher of the White Sand graphic novels, released an interview with Rik Hoskin about the series' forthcoming third, and final, volume. Hoskin is an accomplished comics writer who was brought in to help adapt Brandon's original prose draft of White Sand into the graphic novel format, and in this interview he talks about his experiences working on the project. The interview also confirms the identity of the new artist, the cover art, as well as the release date. Perhaps the most notable bit of information however, is the reveal of a Graphic Audio adaptation of White Sand currently in production. Byron Brewer, the interviewer, begins with asking Hoskin about what it was like working with Brandon on this story and Hoskin quite openly says that he was intimidated, particularly when it came to the idea that he would be improving upon the original manuscript. He likens this to "being asked to 'fix' the Mona Lisa", which is a sentiment to which I think most of us can agree. Hoskin goes on to say, however, that Brandon's dedication to and enthusiasm for the collaboration as well as his willingness to step back and allow others to fiddle with the story led to a very fulfilling experience. Isaac Stewart, Brandon's in-house art director, also gets a callout as playing a pivotal role in bringing the project to fruition. A product page for White Sand volume 3 popped up on Amazon, back in December but since Amazon can sometimes be premature (and incorrect) with some of the information they release we elected not to report on this earlier. Now that we have official confirmation, I am very excited to say that the third volume will be releasing this June (on the 25th according to Amazon). The new artist, replacing Julius Gopez, is Fritz Casas. Listeners of Shardcast know that opinions on the first two volumes are contentious, but I have long held that the success of the story rests on having it in its entirety. I for one cannot wait to see how it all turns out. Lastly, Hoskin also confirms that he is currently scripting a Graphic Audio adaptation of White Sand. It seems like this endeavor will be a slightly more fleshed out version as he is taking the work he did on the graphic novel and building on it by going back the original manuscript to restore segments of the story that were cut for space reasons. I am aware that Graphic Audio's productions are not for everyone but I personally love the way that they make these stories we all enjoy come alive in new ways. I am also incredibly thankful for their existence as they are the main avenue I have to share my love of Sanderson with my family, so now I will be able to share another story that I would not otherwise be able to. One thing I would be interested to see, particularly since this will be an expanded version of the story, is whether Graphic Audio would be willing to release the "screenplay" so people can consume it in a format closer to prose, without Brandon having to rewrite the novel. Also, in case you missed it yesterday, 17th Shard now has a Patreon! If you want to help support news articles like this, or the site in general, please consider becoming a Patron.