The finished portrait of Ozma. In The Marvelous Land of Oz Ozma is described as having a cloud of golden hair. In every book thereafter, however, she is shown as a brunette. I figure that, as a fairy princess, she can have any color hair she likes. Personally, I prefer the dark hair, so that’s how I’ll draw her most often.

At the end of The Marvelous Land of Oz the hero, Tip, discovers that he’s really Ozma, rightful ruler of Oz and – a girl. When told he must be transformed back he’s not enthusiastic but he only spends a page protesting.

Finally he says, “I might try it for a while – just to see how it seems, you know. But if I don’t like being a girl you must promise to change me into a boy again.”

As far as I know, none of the Royal Historians have reported that she disliked being a girl.

This illustration of Ozma was done back in March as I was putting the finishing touches on the cover layout for Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers. I hadn’t intended to use this piece on the cover. The back cover (only available on the print edition) has four circular portraits of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion as part of the design. The ones that are on the cover now are actually the second set of portraits. The first set was too complex and clashed with the cover design.

While I was working on the first set of portraits I sketched up an additional four portraits of other important Oz personages. As with the main four each additional portrait was to have a scene from the character’s history in the background. For Ozma it’s a scene of her approaching the Emerald City on her first adventure. Of course, on her first adventure, Ozma was a young boy and didn’t remember having once been a princess.

This portrait of Ozma is the only one of the additional illustrations that I finished. I started portraits of Ozzy, the Wizard and the Woggle-Bug but they didn’t get beyond the basic inking stage. I’ll post those later in the week.

I’m done with my summer quarter. I finished my last final a week ago. I’m still working an internship until the middle of September so I’m not suddenly blessed with a lot of free time. I’m just now able to think about things other than school, work and chores. Now it’s just work and chores. Yay!

One of the first things I want to get together is an actual website for Oz Squad. The current one is just a quick placeholder. I’d started work on a site before school started and then lost what little I’d managed to do when my laptop died.

Speaking of Oz Squad, the sketch above is my version of Ozma. I figured no one is going to keep the same look for a hundred years, so no poppies for this princess!