Merry Christmas Dracontiar

Mkay, I just did this picture today and there is a very long explination concerning why it looks the way it does. And so I begin.

I had not a damn clue of what I was going to do for this Secret Santa thing. I wanted to participate, so I signed up, and I told myself I wasn't going to back down. Period. End of discussion. Regardless of the fact that I kind of wanted to. I've punked out of enough stuff I didn't want to do. So I buckled down, and went with it.

I got Dracontiar as the person I was Secret Santa-ing for, and she mentioned in the forum she wanted a picture of her OCs. Which is cool. I'm down for OCs. She didn't have a reference picture (and believe me, I searched high and low for one) but she gave a very elaborate description in the forums. And that's cool. So I set to work.

And I also began to stress. My first draft was just her female OC, Arilyne, standing in a bad-ass like pose going all, "RAAAAHH" like and stuff. It looked good, but not good enough. Not to mention there was the issue of coloring it, and I knew it wouldn't color well. Just go with me on this one. So I scrapped it and tried again. In my next one, I had both of her characters, Arilyne and Darren, with Arilyne giving Darren a Christmas present, and it had a cute little saying on it and it was adorable, but heavily out of character. So I scrapped that. Then I decided I'd just wait for Christmas Break to roll around so I could have some major relaxation time and lots of time to think about it. I've been having some school issues, you see.

Then, X-Mas break rolled around. Then I got sick. Then I was bedridden for three days and high as a kite on NyQuil giggling at the same VH1 shows I had seen before about seventy billion times. The Secret Santa thing was a distant memory.

Well, Christmas Eve rolled around, and I was finally starting for feel a little better. I went to a family gathering, split some Cherry Vodka-Red Bull mixtures with my cousins and (may have perhaps) got a mild buzz, enjoyed an awesome dinner, and went home. Then I went to bed, and stayed up all night because I had slept for three straight days and couldn't sleep anymore. That, and I was congested to the point of not being able to breathe through my nose - at all. So I hit the NyQuil again and tried to get some sleep.

Then Christmas, today, rolled around, I had some fun, and got some nice art-stuff from my awesome aunt from Ireland (thank you, Orla!!!!!!! ) as well as a copy of Amadeus, one of my favorite (if not, my ultimate favorite) movies of all time (Tom Hulce is ky00t! Shut up, even I can fansqueal once in a while), and as I was doodling and watching Amadeus, it occured to me that I had nothing prepared for the Secret Santa thing. The final due date's not until January something, but...come on. It's Christmas. I'd have felt like a jerk if I didn't have something ready for Christmas, considering I had nothing better to do and the rest of the world probably knows that. So I set to work, and got a sketch of what you see before you.

Well, then I realized I had to color it. But the only coloring implements I have are about six neutral-looking watercolored pencils that came with the Faber-Castell (pardon if I spelled it wrong) set that I got, but it was a start, so I began. And about all the way through, it occurred to me that I had made a pretty bold move by not inking it. So, yeah, whoops. It came out alright, though, so I pressed on.

Then I spilled water on Darren's hair. And then I cried a bit, but remembered the whole "watercolored pencils" thing, and I was probably going to wind up going in that direction anyway. So I water-ified the rest of it, and got a really not-much-better rendition of what's on your screen.

Then I scanned it. And my scanner successfully attacked, fought, beat, deep-fried, committed very scary and nauseating acts upon, and eventually killed my picture. Unable to even save it a little, I began playing with the effects in ArcSoft praying something good would happen.

In the end, I got this. Yeah. The artistic throw-up you see on your screen.

All in all, I'm not proud of it. I'm not proud of it at all. I really think I could have done better...or, rather, I really wish I had not butchered this picture because the sketch came out so pretty. But here it is, Dracontiar, of your love birds. I hope you can forgive me, and Merry Christmas.

*Sigh* I should have just shaded it.

PS, I don't know what the heck the feathers are for.

PSS, Fate is cruel. I had to resubmit it because the I wasn't meeting submission requirements. That just puts a damper on your self-esteem, doesn't it? It doesn't really get much better than this, sadly.