*pant pant~* Well~! Here it is--the much-delayed picture I drew for Shana! =3  Shana ^w^ I'm pretty proud with how this came out~... Still got lots of room for improvement, but in my opinion--I don't think I did too badly here~...!
Shana gave me complete control over what I wanted her lovely character Ziiva to be doing, so~... I thought "hey, a day at the beach would be lovely!" ...And what a lovely day it turned out to be~! X3 I like the crab, to be perfectly honest--the crab just plain rocks. XD I'm sure anyone would want to be that crab, just to hang out with Ziiva. =3 =P

Ziiva is said, me quoting Shana, to be a lively, bright, and energetic young character with an adoration for jewelry. =3 Now, I may not be the best creator of jewels, but I did what I could to make this picture look mighty fine without over-doing it. Still, I wish I could have drawn a toe-ring or two, keep the flip-flops idea I had from earlier (one of them was supposed to be kicked off her back foot~), and maybe add just a bit more bling-bling to her appearance. I also wish I didn't try so soon to make the transition between coloured pencils. >w<;; But I have no regrets really--I think this one turned out really well, to be perfectly honest. Compare it to my other drawings, and dammit--the anatomy does indeed look quite beautiful. =3 Shana's characters are drawn with such beauty and accuracy--I felt the urge to put that much more effort into her character as well. I used several tools to help me accomplish this task: a 6" mannequin that I call "Bitts" (he's my lil' drawing buddy~), Summer from the Barbie doll collection--stripped naked and posing fully--and hey, my girlfriend still buys a Barbie now and then and told me to go for it! DX At least I'm a lot more masculine than most men out there who wouldn't dare use a Barbie doll... XDDD I also used an extremely detailed book on anatomy to get the muscular figures down pat, and finally--several different issues of Seventeen magazine to get an idea for the clothing. I wanted her to look schmexy, and what a better way than to look in a fashion magazine? Publisher's Clearing House randomly sent it to my girlfriend, and afterwards have been demanding that she pay for something she didn't even order, so... we just don't reply and let them keep on sending it. Hey--we told them several times she didn't order it, so why are they constantly sending it...? XDD Well, if we get it for free, no use complaining, right? I found quite a few really nice outfits in there, and had a hard time deciding on which one I wanted to use...~! This one stuck out to me, because it was nice and sporty on top, showed a lot of mid-drift, and seemingly comfortably baggy on the bottom. The shirt was actually a lot more revealing than this--I actually made it a teensy bit more conservative than they did~!

In this picture, I dared to attempt a background/backdrop for Ziiva, to add a bit more spice to her character. It was quite the challenge, especially for her taller character. Ziiva turned out so well, but also so tall--I had to compliment all the features by inserting a basic background of some sort... For some reason, Ah! My Goddess popped into my head, and I used the familiar scene where Belldandy's footstep turned into ripples on the surface. I'll admit that I still have quite a bit to learn about ripple effects, but meh--it complemented the picture in the end, and still looked quite nice even if it wasn't perfect... >.>;; TwT

I'm quite proud of my work this year, so far--I've really improved a lot on the anatomy and shapes of what I draw, and have received loads of help in the last year. Thanks goes to Nai-chan, Corillion, Shana, Takara Kitsune, Essrayle, and many more for their help on critiquing my artwork and offering to me as much advice as possible. =^.^= Thanks a lot, guys and gals!

Artwork is © myself, Matt the Umbreon
Ziiva is © her creator, Shana