Hotaru

Finally done!!!   And only a few days before the deadline, too! That was too close for comfort. So here's my last entry for 's contest, starring Hima, the Sunflower foxfan! I especially love Hima because she's so pretty with that long hair and the little sunflower markings on her shoulders. When I first saw her on auction I wanted her so bad, but of course I could not even afford to bid, so it was not to be.  Still, I am happy I can still draw her for fanart, gifts, and contests! Like Ace, she was originally going to be in the background of my first entry (her hat was going to be blowing away in the wind and she was going to be chasing after it with Ace's help), but since I didn't think I could handle that many foxfans in one picture for my first try, she ended up having a drawing all to herself instead. I'm glad I did it this way because I was more able to pay attention to details on her and I'm pretty happy with the results!  

About the drawing
Here Hima is taking an evening walk and has stopped to admire a lantern full of fireflies that is lighting the path for her. "Hotaru" is Japanese for firefly, hence the title, although I wish I could've come up with something more interesting. Anyways, I chose to draw her without her hat because I really wanted to show off her hair, and also because this is a nighttime scene so she doesn't need a sunhat. Originally, the lantern was going to be glass with the fireflies stuck inside, but then decided to make it open so they could come and go as they please. There are always enough of them in there at any given moment to light the path, though; they make sure of that as a gift to the foxfans. ^_^

I had to be really brave with this picture because it required me to try doing several things I really don't know how to do, including nighttime lighting and shadows, painting water and cobblestones (thank you SO much windancer53 for making that great cobblestone tutorial!), and drawing a whole background on Photoshop Elements from scratch because the only thing I had drawn on paper and scanned was Hima herself. Looking back, I think this is my first real nighttime picture, at least the first one in which I bothered to shade anything differently that I normally would. In the past, I just put a dark sky with stars in the back of whatever i drew and that was it; everything in front was still brightly colored and shaded like daytime. This came out way better than I expected, though I know there are still a lot of problems (like please forgive the crappiness of that bridge. I literally drew that in 5 minutes and I suck at drawing manmade structures anyway >.<). Still, I hope this means I'm learning and improving!

Now all I can do is sit here and cross my fingers and hope an pray that I win!  The agony! There are so many wonderful entries that I doubt my chances, but at least I've tried my best and gotten some great inspiration out of it. This has to be the most art I've gotten done in such a short time in years! Foxfans are awesome! I actually have many more ideas for foxfan drawings that I was going to use for the contest, but there was no time to do them all. If only I hadn't found out about the contest almost a whole month after it started! I'm always late to the party.  I'll still draw them later for fun anyway. Well, I guess it's time to get back to work on my adoptables now. I have been seriously procrastinating on those, although I had a really good reason this time! Wish me luck in the contest and thanks again to for having it! This has been a blast!  


Hima (c)

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