NOT DEAD (yet)

hey everyone!! i'm back!!

work is unfortunately eating a lot of my time, but i'm glad i was able to finish something so big!! it feels like its been ages since i last finished something 😭!!!!!!!!! 

i'm not sure if i mentioned it already here but since october i've been absolutely enamored by ranking of kings/ousama ranking...its SOO GOOD!!! i just want the absolute best for bojji and kage 😭 my little peanuts...my angels...

the 2nd cour started last week thursday and with it a new opening dropped and im SO OBSESSED and EMOTIONAL so i knew i had to draw SOMETHING for this special little series.... i tried channeling all my love into a single pic... u__u it's nowhere near enough but it'll have to do...!!!

the general idea for this pic stylistically was to mix stained glass with a fairytale-esque composition!! 

^ the first pass was SUPER rough. all i knew was i wanted a long, horizontal composition (perfect for stuffing in characters), and i wanted bojji, while in the center, to have a sort of halo. i've always loved how halos are depicted in classical biblical art. i think the big circle is just so cool! so i went with that. i also wanted a sort of line cutting through the middle of the pic as a divider!!

^i don't think i intentionally tried to go with a stained glass/very stylized look, it just kind of happened naturally. the windows/archways on the left definitely ended up solidifying the look.

^ it's all coming together!! i liked recreating the first time kage and bojji met on the left, but it felt out of place when compared to the right side. it just had too much negative space and didn't really fit with the stylization i was going for.

^ this is the fixed version. and the one i went with in the final. i like how they second set of windows/arches ride the divider!! and i think the pinky promise part is cute :) more circles!!! woohoo!!

^ final sketch!! i tried stuffing in a nice and cool hand reach on the right but it ended up making the pinky promise part look stuffy...i'm still kind of sad about it because i think this whole pic needs more kage 😭 im so sorryyyyyy kageeeeee

^ the final lines worried me a bit because i'm not used to inking such clean lines with a brush that has no pen pressure (i turned it off to help with the stained glass effect). i wouldn't say inking this was necessarily my favorite part... it kind of made me feel icky LOOOL. i had stabilizers on MAX because i was determined to get clean lines. i ended up giving up on that near the end though so try not to zoom in TOO much on the final or you might be disappointed... >__>;;;

the rest was just standard coloring!! picking colors for this one was kind of tricky, but i'm pleased with the results!! i especially love the textures...i threw it into ps at the end and played with the oil paint effect and it was PERFECT *__*!!!! i love zooming in and looking at it....waaa.....

and i think that's it!!! yay!!! my first finished pic of the year :"D

sorry for the radio silence these past few days >__< again, work has been kicking my butttttt. i don't know if i'll have much time for pics like this anymore but we'll see what i'll scrawl out here and there :~)!!!!

see you next week (?)!!!