slr2moons | art post: Skip Beat! A Bromantic Consultation

Last fall, I signed up to provide a bromance illustration for ensuing's Bromance Calendar. I chose September, for it is my birth month. I finished the pic back in October, and now I'm finally posting it for public non-calendar consumption! No excuse for how long it's taken me to post it, except life in general. :B BTW, looks like the calendar is still available, if anyone wants a copy. It's very cute!

I decided to want to draw some eye candy, and thus I chose the glorious bishounen Tsuruga Ren and Yashiro Yukihito from Skip.

And now, art! 100% SFW.

A Bromantic Consultation by Sabrina Heep. ^^V Ren has asked his manager, Mr. Yashiro, to double-check a kanji reading, for the online dictionary he consulted beforehand via cell wasn't clear enough.

And now, babbling about the art:

I deliberately chose to not use Skip canon's head-to-height ratio for the men. Nakamura-sensei can make the 15-heads-tall-look work, but I can't seem to pull it off. I also prefer Yashiro's pale blond hair from manga canon. I was very disappointed when the anime gave him such dark hair! I suppose they wanted him to contrast with Sho--and Reino if they made it that far. (They didn't, alas.)

The script's title is "Hatsushigure", and is an archaic word meaning the first rain to fall between late autumn and early winter. Isn't it poetic?? ^^ The mon (the family crest on Ren's yukata) is a horse because I love horsies and am not afraid to show it! I chose to dress Ren in traditional clothing because in 29 volumes of manga, we have yet to see him in it. In the spirit of "if you want it, draw it", I did. ^^V And finally, my favorite part of this pic is Yashiro's tie. I just love how it came out. It looks so silky and satiny! I want to pet it. X3

Created 100% in Photoshop from sketch to final color. Only regular Photoshop brushes used. The texture in the background, the script, and Ren's yukata are actually manga screen tones. :D

This pic actually pulls double duty, for it's also a tribute to the best Yashiro/Ren fic I have yet to find, A Manager's Devotion by Hazukashiijousan. In the fic, Ren teases Yashiro about owning a pink suit, and Yashiro insists its proper color is "angelic aubergine". I couldn't help but giggle over the distinction, and that settled the shade of Yashiro's suit for this pic.

I am quite pleased with the painting, even now that I look at it again 6 months later. Yay, I made pretty bishounen!! Kyaaa! XD I will be posting this to DA, tumblr, and AO3 as well. Links here updated as the posts are made. ^^

And now, back to work for me. Wheee!!