Commission for  Yutari
Collaboration with  dbear

Description: Hotaru (foreground) and Shinetsu (background) are brothers going diving.
Hotaru looks back, and is met with this amazing sight of this school of fish haloing above
and behind Shin. Meanwhile, Shin is oblivious for now, at the spectacle occuring behind him.

In Hotaru's view, it's just one of those moments, where life lines itself up perfectly to make
the moment beautiful. The sunlight shimmering through the water above, leaving Shin backlit
and the swarm of fish casting dancing shadows and light all around. To see someone you care
about in that kind of perfect moment, someone you love and know will always be there for you...

It beats any sight he was ever expecting to see.

--

So Yutari kept it simple, showed me his charaters, described them, and gave a general idea
of what he wanted. I think my first thought actually was, "Wow, clean art huh? Alrighty, cool."

From Yutari's description, I had the general idea and feel for the mood; "bonding and loving,
but not romantically so. They're brothers afterall."

So I hit up my creative partner, dbear, and discussed the project.

The idea of diving and exploring and discovering something together was the idea. Something that
would bring loving characters together. At first my ideas were lukewarm.

So he tossed me some ideas, and of his list of ideas, he brought up the idea of a school of fish.
Instantly, I had this idea in my head, and I told it to him, and he described it back to me with the
same mood and tone and everything as I imagined.... So I knew we were on the same page, and we
both loved it.

So at first, he had the idea of having the school of fish loosely forming a shape of "wings" behind
Shin. I fell in love with that idea instantly, because I love packing in meaningful metaphors in art when I
can. I sketched up a few ideas, and unfortunately it felt less "well composed" than the halo of fish, and
sort of felt a little busy. I tried making it work, but, decided to go for better composition in this case.

But the wings was a perfect concept because it would represent how Shin is Hotaru's guardian angel,
it would reinforce that underwater "flying" feeling, and it would be a spectacle to see for sure.

When I do pictures, it might sound weird, but I like to add logos to things when it's appropriate. Whether
it's fake or real logos. Why? It might sound silly, but I think it adds authenticity and a sense of "Okay,
this is a real world with a real economy, with real products. That shirt with that logo feels like that character
actually went out and bought it at a store. They live in a world with stores, money, jobs, problems, etc."
And people relate to that. In my opinion, it expands the feeling of looking at a picture, and feeling like
it's happening in a real world.

Anyways, I knew I wanted dbear to make the fictional logos, based on meaningful keywords that we asked
Yutari to give us, which included "Wolf" and "Full Moon". So off the job goes to dbear He's one of those
graphic designers who just always impresses me, one of the most talented and creative people I know, who often
impresses me. Anyways, in like 20 minutes, he just whipped up these two logo ideas for some of their
diving gear, for names he made up, "Wet Wolf" and "Full Moon Diving Accessories" and I was floored! I
implemented them as naturally as I could in the picture.

***
You can view the logos in better view here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7421554
***

I knew from the very start, that I wanted a little bit of typography somewhere in this picture. Using
some sort of quote that meant something good and related to the picture. dbear impressed me (again)
with the quote he chose, AND the way he designed it. He's one of those graphic designers who just always
impresses me, one of the most talented and creative people I know. Anyways, when we brought in the quote
he displayed it nicely, and the "wings" felt like a perfect throwback to his original concept of the school of
fish forming "wings" behind Shin. I felt bad compromising that concept, so I felt really good having this quote
kind of "bringing it back".

Then there's bubbles. I had no idea how I was gonna approach the bubbles, but dbear saved me here by
whipping up a custom photoshop brush for painting bubbles into my picture, using a vector bubble he made in
illustrator. I think it works out really nicely.

the coloring job I knew was gonna be fun, cause I knew I'd get to do some backlighting and warm and cool
color temperature combinations, which I have to nerdly say, I was excited about. And I knew I was also gonna
just have a lot of bright lights and just work with some colors and effects that I've never done before and some
that I need practice with.

Then we just worked through all of this, doing a little bit of "how's this look" over and over until it was done. :)

Thanks to dbear who obviously helped me out a lot. To Yutari for commissioning me and being really
responsive and helpful and cooperative. To TiberiusRings Sheppymilo who gave feedback as well
to help this all come together. I'm really happy and proud of this piece, and think it's one of my best/favorite.