Titles just never come to me naturally.

A gift for  Sable-Xeno, featuring his lucario character known as Sable (not to be confused with himself). He wields what are basically sabres composed of aura (although their shape is more inspired by the shamshir), but they had never been recreated visually, so I figured I could depict them in some way or another.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. The sabres were a nice exercise in layer effects, although I still think they could have been done at least somewhat better (but I'm not sure how). I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the rest - I'm really happy with how the background turned out, especially with how it accentuates the glow of the sabres. Admittedly, I had to look some stuff up to make all those white specks, but I think it really added some texture to what would have otherwise been empty black space. If you're wondering how I came up with the thing, it's inspired by the arena in which you fight Tabuu in Smash Bros Brawl, which the platform is pretty heavily based off of as well. I'm happy to have decided to make the shading a bit harsher than usual, too, along with making the light source below him - I always like the dramatic effect it creates. It's beginning to feel kind of awkward having so much to say about what I like about what I've made in each description, but I suppose that also means that I've managed to not become dissatisfied with everything I make, which I'd consider to be more of a good thing than anything else. I do still see plenty of room for improvement and want to do so.

All I'm really unhappy about is the implementation of the rather flat-looking blades, but I honestly don't know what I could do to help that. I also wasn't too sure just how strong their glow should be, so I only made its light visible on the paws that are holding it. For something that's just a black shape with a crapload of layer effects on it, it worked out nicely, but I feel that I could use more practice with these kinds of glowy bits. I can do bioluminescence decently enough, I feel, but I still need to work on things like fire, energy, or aura that are basically just light themselves. Maybe I'll try to incorporate it into a future work.

Anyways, like always, feedback's a thing that makes me happy. In particular, if you have some advice on anything here (especially the sabres), please do share it. Even without that, though, it's nice to see that people are interested enough to take some time to give a few words about the stuff I make.

...and in case you're wondering, yes, this is the same lucario I drew with Jay earlier.