COMMISSION 3 OF 10 I PURCHASED AT FE2017

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The two furry souls have been fiercely entangled for a very long time now. Both fighters have been holding their own throughout all the strategic and vicious strikes. The pirate and ninja continue to face each other in this everlasting bout of endurance.

Upon closer inspection, however, Vivienne seems to have far more grace and finesse in battle, wielding sparring skills from countless years of experience efficiently and expertly without breaking a sweat. Her slashes, thrusts, and counterattacks happen too fast for Leo, catching him off-guard and making him pay for it almost always, evidenced through the numerous dirt patches and bruises on his furry body. The pirate vixen needs not boast her knowledge and expertise of battle as she often trips up the ninja lion just when he thinks he's about to understand how she fights.

Yet as sore as Leo was... As much as he cursed and swore at himself silently and took every retaliation and blow to his body... He was patient. Call him persistent or stubborn, but Vivienne could clearly see something in Leo's eyes: tenacity. After all, tenacity allows determination to bud and grow. And the fruit that determination bears over time is an indomitable spirit. No sooner would Leo get struck down, he'd instantly be back up for more as angry and upset at himself as he was internally. No, he'd never allow those around him to see him be discouraged; he, himself, refused to be discouraged no matter how inexperienced or unsatisfactory he felt he was.

A cross slash from Vivienne's rapiers came into the corner of the Leo's eye momentarily as he tried to recover on-the-spot from another blow. Gripping the kunai and planting his feet-paws firmly, he threw his right arm upward, countering both blades at once with one of his own, eyeing the pirate vixen with a face that promised to keep going even if he were to draw blood. Vivienne was taken aback mentally and physically, staring in awe of the one strong counter he kept within him till now. Raising her eyebrows as if she were legitimately impressed and pleased with the sudden improvement (as minor as it was in her case), Vivienne readied herself from being left open, slowly smiling that would reassure even the most broken of hearts.

"Not bad," she spoke. "Still have some work to do, but you're getting there."

Almost fully catching his breath from his tactful maneuver, Leo smiled back and lightly chuckled in-between breaths, one arm still extended from the strike of his kunai.

"I'm not ready to give up," he said.

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What's this? A sequel to last year's commission I got from ? Hell yeah! I just had to have an encore from the last time!

I kinda wanted to give this drawing I got some hidden symbolism. See, I wanted this commission to reflect how I'm trying my best to improve on furry artwork (since around the end of January this year). And just when I find some sort of breakthrough, I somehow get frustrated. But I'm not giving up. Even when she broke my ego big-time with her Life Drawing panel, I was still very impressed from what I learned and intrigued with the knowledge I got despite the feeling that I'll never be any better than her. But I imagine that she was happy that I gave it an effort and am eager to learn and understand. I just need to be patient and keep practicing every day (ironic since I haven't been practicing at all due to me trying to write up these descriptions first and getting them out of the way before getting back to practicing, lol).

And , if you are reading this (I doubt it, though, but still, lol), thank you very much for the very informative and insightful panel, and... I'm very sorry for being such a hindrance and a bother asking all those questions and being a one-string banjo (and for having a shitty un-filled character concept). I just really respect you and how you draw furries well what with the experience you have. I admire and am in awe of how you put everything together so flawlessly. I wanna make you proud. It's a shame I can't have you beside me 24/7 to help me understand things and reassure me with things like "you're on the right track" or whatever. I hope to improve however I can and show you that I can conquer the LOA and draw bodies half as decent as you (even sixteenth as decent). If nothing else, I hope to make a better reference of my fursona - if not a better character concept of him - by next year's FE.

Ah, yes, I should get to the actual review, shouldn't I? lol

Once again, she demonstrates her contrast of such engaging and dynamic poses between the two fighters, showing a lot of body language; dynamic actions, natural movements, and expert positioning. Everything has a really fantastic and natural flow! Pretty cool how she got the line of action to make both of those poses work. On Leo's part, very well done with his wardrobe and markings as always, especially with his black paw-print tattoo and Naruto-styled ninja sandals (I seriously must thank her once again for being super, super, super patient with me on them). The way she gives Leo's hairdo/mane just the right amount of fullness while still maintaining its overall anime appeal is just stunning! And once more, outstanding job on the physical interaction with the eyes, maintaining eye contact while holding such active poses. Couple that with the amazing quality of the detailed pencil sketching, and I have here quite an amazing amount of depth and realism to the scene!

As always, , getting a commission from you was well worth the money. And I'll definitely be back at your table with another idea in tow, another amount of money in my wallet, and - hopefully - a new character concept that won't annoy you (again, I'm very sorry about that, lol). Thank you very much for this commission! You are awesome, and you should feel awesome!

OKAY, SERIOUSLY, PLEASE GO WATCH TODAY, AND TELL HER LEO SENT YOU!