****OLD UPLOAD, this contest ended a long ways back****
This was a long time image in production. Lots of hours thinking and planning, and then finally putting it to paper and being happy with a finished entry. You see, The last time I entered the honorable  savannahhorrocks's contest I had issues with my entries as well...no suprise that I had it happen to me again.

I think it is the pressure of wanting to do so well for someone I admire a lot. Seriously people, when you watch someones art for so long and see all the improvements and unique differences along the way, you almost feel like you experienced it with them even though you only silently sat by and watched. I love her style and the beauty in her simple yet difficult masterpieces.
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Above is Aya and her dark lover Mallin. I am such a sucker for long hair and oh man...this was fun!!! I always loved these two character but never really knew much about them until this contest. It was nice to learn so much about them, and having all that information offered to me I just had to enter and do my best!!! A short little explanation of whats going on here, Mallin sometime in her many years of loving him has given Aya an ebony heart which dangles heavily from a small, thin chain. Aya is wearing his token of love securely around her neck and is holding the heart in her tiny hand, close to her heart. I thought it was a sweet little idea and I could just imagine seeing Aya in Mallins' absence just stroking the smooth heart out of saddness, missing her beloved. Such romantic thinking...*smiles*

Characters belong entirely to  savannahhorrocks, show her love!

Done in pencil with added effects.
Song lyrics from Velveteen featured on the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex O.S.T