Finally, finished at last. This is the most time-consuming piece I've ever done. It's an entry for *xx-rin's contest, the prompt of which was to draw your original character wielding some sort of "artistic tool," with an element springing from that tool. Now, two of my characters have elemental magic anyway, and of the two, Normoon was demanding to be drawn. That's a traditional Asian ink stink and grinding well she has there, like would be used for Sumi-e. I know I didn't draw them well, but that's what they're supposed to be. And her element, of course, is wind.

The background is referenced from ~TheDynamicLight's photograph Rhododendrons and Ferns, with inspiration from another of his photos, Redwood Sorrels. He's a wonderful photographer, be sure to check out his work! (And before anyone gets on me with the "That's not STOCK photography, you ignorant jerk!" argument: Yes, I asked his permission ahead of time to reference his photos in my work.)

This didn't scan so great. =/ Her "white" parts scanned particularly bad, with one of the three grays being bleached to a screaming white, the middle one disappearing all together, and the darkest one becoming grainy and horrible. Her clothing also decided to scan wrong. ;__; It's a vibrant orchid purple in real life, not that blue-ish color. Same with her eyes and cuff bracelets.

I tried a different approach to the wind magic than I usually do. Rather than a conspicuous glowing opaque mass, I went for more of a subtle look. Real wind isn't visible unless there's something in it like dust, so it's magical to have it visible at all. I let the wind colors bleed freely over the outlines. Not sure if it looks good or bad, but at least it looks a little more natural than if it was perfectly within the lines.

Lots of things are messed up in this, I won't point them all out. Feel free to let me know if something jumps out at you as needing improvement, but don't be surprised if you get "Yeah, I know" as part of the response. I really went out on a limb and did a lot of things I didn't really know how to do, so naturally it all couldn't come out perfectly. But the mistakes aside, I think this is my best piece to date. I made something I'm proud of and learned a lot from it. Whether I place in the contest or not, that makes me a winner.

_{Col-Erase colored pencils (sketch only), Staedtler Triplus Fineliners, fine-point Pitt Artist pen, size 01 Sakura Pigma Micron, Prismacolor markers.
Normoon and artwork © me, *Peachfuzz. Reference/Inspiring photographs © ~TheDynamicLight.}