Who's the penguin that's fluffy and sweet?
She's got cuddly hugs that can't be beat!

Whether she's a penguin or a Boov,
This cool girl knows how to groove!

Feeling sad or blue? She'll cheer you up quick!
Being her awesome self really does the trick!

I'm happy to call this penguin girl my friend.
I have no gifts, so this drawing I shall send.

May your birthday be full of fun (and maybe a treat)!
You deserve to be happy just for being sweet!

HAPPY 36^TH BIRTHDAY, BIZZY!

MUCH LOVE TO YOU AND BUZZY!

PENGUIN NOISES~!

---

Yes, I know it's a chibi. Yes, I know I need to improve and stop doing chibis. Yes, I'm aware I need work.

But you know what? Screw it!

It's Bizzy's (a.k.a. 's) birthday tomorrow, and I really wanted to do something nice for her after she's been very kind and sweet to me making me feel cheerful. Then I found out from her latest journal that she's inviting any and all to be part of her birthday video where she features any gifts and art pieces she's received. So that's what I did! And even if it doesn't get featured, I'm not worried; all I hope for is that she enjoys my gift just as I enjoyed making it!

EARLY BIRTHDAY GIFT NO JUTSU~!

Also I may or may not have been partially inspired by the penguin costume Chiyo Mihama wore in Azumanga Daioh (why, I have no idea considering I've never read the manga).

For the setting, I quickly reminded myself of one of Bizzy's fursuit videos where she answers my question about how she's different from other penguins. She explained that her specific penguin species was called the Little Blue which originally hail from New Zealand, and they're actually tropical penguins contrary to whichever frigid regions they're typically found in. Naturally, like her, those penguins don't like the cold. So I went with the idea of Leo in a penguin outfit on a beach, holding onto a tropical fruit drink!

One other strategy I did that you may notice in the drawing is that for the font, I've taken the colours on the head and fursuit parts of 's Bizzy fursuit and used them for the letter fill and outlines. And just to make sure those bright colours weren't lost in the already-bright background, I added in a fairly-thin black shadow outline behind each line. Pretty cool, eh?

Granted, my furry artwork's still far, far, far from capturing even a sixteenth of the talent of all the other cool furry artists and their drawings, but I enjoyed drawing this and had a lot of fun from start to finish. And hey, it's not often I do anything for anyone - especially on their birthday - though I'd really love to learn how to draw others' characters/fursonas rather than drawing my own wishing them whatever.

As another plus, though, I'm trying out a new watermark I made myself thanks to copy-and-paste from Google Translate onto Word and then screen-capping and writing over everything in SAI. I'm likin' it! What do you think?

But I digress!

Hope your birthday is a lot of fun, , with friends and gifts aplenty!

*****

TOOLS USED
Wacom Bamboo Splash Pen Surface Tablet (CTL-470)
Paint Tool SAI (Version 1.1.0)
Adobe Photoshop CS5 [For Lettering]