Finally, a deviation I feel is at least decent for Avice. I know, we haven’t seen a lot of Avice lately, so to make sure I cut in on Brandy’s current monopoly on my deviations before she got monotonous, I luckily rediscovered this old drawing and colored it. This is Avice, my part-bird, part-human character, who I drew. The guy with her is Lani, drawn by my sister, Danielle. This is probably the first real collaboration between us that I’ve completely colored, so yay for milestones.

First thing’s first: this isn’t meant to be a sexy picture. Yes, well… they’re embracing, and she’s leaning into him, but it’s more over an act of affection or compassion. Tenderness like this is something Avice craves over anything, and she’s able to find such sensitivity in Lani, and that, more than basic urges, is what this picture means to me.

I went in wanting a painterly look to it. At least, a little more painterly than my other deviations, and while I may have not gotten it all the way there, I’m really happy with the softness to the whole thing. Danielle and I have agreed that Avice and Lani are our most sensual characters, so I didn’t want too many garish colors or severe shadows. Smooth color blends work better for characters like that, and especially in a scene like this. The greatest challenge was pretty much that: getting very smooth shadows, since they’re obviously out in mid-day and there isn’t a direct light source.

Heh, I never like saying things like this because I’m worried I sound like I’m bragging, but I’m proud of the background in this. Yesh, s’all my work. I did look at pictures—many photographs I Googled of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia (USA). That’s another sentimental touch to this picture. My father lives in Virginia, and I’ve grown really fond of those mountains after my trips up there, so I was happy to perch Avice on mountains inspired by them. I actually played around with making the background a forest, but I ended up deciding against it because I wanted Avice to finally be out of her “sanctuary”—she doesn’t have to be sheltered or hidden anymore. Not with Lani.