Commissioned by  flippedoutkyrii,
This pic features an anthropomorphic species I've never tried before--an insect. A bee, to be exact. And since Nailin Fayfeather here is the CEO of a sizable corporation, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to call her "Queen Bee". Thank goodness for other artists having drawn her, as insects were one of those "we oughta see more of this in the fandom" species that is uncommon since it's not easy to anthropomorphisize them in an attractive manner.

So, why would the 'big boss' pull such a prank on her newest assistant Jessica White? There's a bit more than what meets the eye. According to the original pitch:

"Jessica was sent out of the office to retrieve 4 cups of expensive Coffee. Not something the plucky, young personal assistant to Fayfeather Horizon's CEO is alien to, it's just that it is currently raining, she left her umbrella on the bus this morning AND she chose today of all days to break in her new Christian Louboutin platform boots!

But, Jessica has a job to do!

After a long walk to and back, Jessica is soaked head to toe, but her determination to bring back the fabled coffee was a success, as they are still warm and ready for consumption!

Upon entering the office on the 70th floor, Jessica marches to deliver her payload, but brushes past the CEO herself, who despite being blind, is more then adept at sensing which one of the coffee's is hers by scent alone.

However, she stops to inquire the wet nature of Jessica's outfit. Jessica, unaware of just how adapted Nalin's other senses are, shivers but shrugs it off, stating she's been through worse, as she wants to show just how independant and reserved she is. Nalin then inquires how her new boots are doing her, which Jessica replies and embellishes the comfortable nature of her new purchase, stating they are completely dry inside!

Smirking at her embellishment, Nalin turns to waltz past Jessica, her stinger at the ready!

Striking by sense alone, Nalin loops her stinger through the zipper loop on Jessica's boot mid-stride, yanking her zipper down with such force it yanks her boot off the Raccoon's foot!

Blushing, Jessica shivers as her wet panty-hose clad paw meets the cold air of the office and her water-logged boot spills its contents behind her. Nalin giggles, insisting Jessica be more honest next time, and for the love of all that is holy, be more adapt at studying the weather!"

So, it's not a prank so much as a 'lesson taught'. I heard Nalin is going to hold on to her 'trophy' for awhile to make sure the lesson sinks in :) I'm Jessica won't forget--she still has to finish delivering the rest of the coffee wearing only one high-heeled platform boot

Technical:
This being a shaded pencil pic (calling this a "sketch" is an understatement), there are not a lot of technical stories to be told. Due to the amount of detail put into the outfits of these two characters, not to mention the challenging interaction between the two (just try to animate it in your head), I felt that drawing this across two pages (11x17") would show the characters in the best light, same as Surf Day BirthDay (coincidentally delivered almost two years ago to the day from this one), and Slush Splash. For this exercise, I taped two sheets of bristol together to maintain alignment till the serious penciling began, then worked on each sheet back and forth until just before shading.

At this point, there was no backdrop, although one was specified. Being that it involved only linework, I made it a separate drawing, and upon approval, scanned and enlarged it so it could span the double-width character art. Joining these two sheets together, I positioned it behind the characters and employed a lightbox to trace in the office corridor. Once that was done, I added the pencil shading scanned, and matched up the two halves to produce the image you see above.

Pencil lineart and shading on twin bristol sheet, text and attributions added in Micrografx Picture Publisher 10. Project ID# 439

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