

Thank you very much, Blossom! For both commissioning me and for the comment





It makes me really glad that you liked it to the point of coming back to it regularly to look further into the details! That is honestly the best thing for me to read as it shows that an impact was made, and this is a huge sign of success of this particular illustration. It indeed took me a long time, but much more than that, it demanded a lot of my energy. As I probably said in the description (which I do not remember anymore XD), a lot of it was pretty difficult for me to get right! Other than Kaleo and a few other things, all the rest took a lot of doing and re-doing, painting and re-painting until it looks somewhat acceptable. Some of the elements turned out amazing, others not so much, but they balanced each other out in the end. Result of long hours of figuring stuff out.





Regarding the background, I do remember you asking for a wintery landscape. You even said it could be something Sonic like, and I actually considered it... but I remembered something far more interesting and personal. I spent 4 months of my life in Canada (and I am going to spend another entire year). Those were not just regular 4 months; they were months of a lot of learning, getting to know myself, opening my mind, discovering new things and being introduced to a new way of seeing the world. In order words, it was and it is still going to be a pretty important place and period of my life. When you asked me for this type of background, it did not take me long to start browsing a lot of canadian landscape references. The entire background is based on it, I am pretty sure the mountain on the back is actually a mountain somewhere in Canada (probably in British Columbia, but I do not know the place exactly).







One thing I like to do when people ask me to do an illustration of couples (which so far was only you and your friend, Zketcherz) is avoiding the so famous kiss scene. Although kissing is good and it has a lot of emotion involved, I see it more as a representation of passion rather than love. Kissing is an explosion of emotions and senses, something truly impactful and extreme in a good way. Love, however, is on the simple things: a walk on the park with your partner, having lunch together during the break time at work, even long hours of nothing but silence and the company of each other. I have two friends who are in a relationship right now. They have been together for around 3 years. I rarely see them kissing, I believe I can count on my fingers the amount of times I have seen them doing so. But I can clearly see how much they love each other on the most daily and simple of things! You characters love each other a lot. Truly. So when you asked for something sweet but playful (which makes a lot of sense considering Kaleo's personality), I looked for the simplest thing I could. The piggback ride is a super childish and playful thing that perhaps most of people have done on their lives, it was a great solution for this equation.







I don't always make it, sometimes I fail (the last one I did did not ended up the way I wanted it to), but that's what being human is all about. It is just like Crush 40 said... Finally, I would like to thank you once again for taking your precious and valuable time to leave a comment expressing your thoughts on my work and for choosing me among many others to do this commission for you. I know it took me long to reply to this comment of yours, but that is because I wanted to do so in properly. Just like you did with this illustration, I would regularly come back to this comment trying to structure a response in my head! I always want to deliver the best work I possibly can on the end of the day, because my commissions are not cheap after allI don't always make it, sometimes I fail (the last one I did did not ended up the way I wanted it to), but that's what being human is all about. It is just like Crush 40 said...





Live & Learn

