I recognized them immediately. It's...of, wow. It's so beautiful. By some miracle, Silver (Bobbi's creator/player) was still awake this late, and I got to show her the picture too.

You both are so amazingly kind, generous, and thoughtful. i can't possibly thank you enough. It's amazing. I love it! Thank you!

bwaaarrghghdfksdf. that flatters me so. >u<

and yeah, i wouldn't have added a background on this because it wasn't intended for one;
which is why i need to start planning for them.

and i did :D thanks haha.

*SQUEAK!*

Oh my word. It's beautiful! What an amazing line you have! So clearly French metropolitane-inspired, the way you render weight and gravity, the way your characters express motion through gentle notes of gravity and balance shift. The lift and turn of Dusty and Bobbi into one another (his far knee, her near one), the way her hair and back form a smooth flow of the eyes that's different from the one her spine creates beneath it, the lightness of their touches...and my, do you ever know Dusty's eyes.

It's stunning. My God, I love it, and so does Bobbi's creator/player. Thank you every so much!

ohh man oh man. your comments are always the greatest, and now i am the proud owner of one. [beams]
your comments are the best because you point out all the things the artist spends time thinking about and creating, and it's so much more gratifying than "cute pic". XD so thank you!

it was no problem drawing this, i actually really enjoyed it. <3 i spent a week or two cultivating in my mind how i wanted to draw these two, and i think i got it the way i wanted it in the end. P: the mannerisms and appearance of bobbi actually reminds me of one or two people in my life, so it was nice to have a base to work off of~

You're very welcome. I certainly did love the picture, but without telling you *what* I loved, and what stood out to me, there's little to learn from my liking it. There's so much *to* like, here -- the way you used a classic watercolor trick of Dusty's barely-open mouth (another perfect touch) by softening the edges of color there, making his mouth melt 'back and away' from the eye to add softness, nebulousness, indistinctness there, the illusion of a murmur spoken with a line that is not quite a line. And then, the way you used highlight and "inverse shadow" behind Dusty's bang to create a sharp "ACHTUNG!" between the corner of his eye, starkly architectural, pulling down with its weight, and the streak of white that brings contrast to the bang, makes it "pop" visually. Yes, it's just one way to remember the shadows playing across very light grey, but your technique shows an eye for not simply photographic rendering of light on surface, but an eye for where to use line to speak. You aren't merely a photographer rendering in pencil -- you're an *artist*, and you use your media, and its freedoms, with skill and clear command.

That lighter grey "scrub" highlight in his tail, extending the upper tail line into the thick brush below, is another great use of that trick. :)

Then her. Oh, the sense of *softness* that patch of darker fur across her lower back expresses -- and how it makes her tail step out and take dimension. Architecturally, the eye expects her tail to ruffle the flow of the burgundy sheer drape, but it doesn't -- indeed, the veil becomes a pool of rich wine-colored wash across her lower body, speaking texture only in a note here at her elbow, a not there as it puddles on the floor. Again, this is where photography and art diverge -- the photograph captures raw, uncompromising physics, but art captures impressions, emotions, feelings. This is the deep rich burgundy wine of murmured desire she wears, and it is cloth when it wishes to be, fluid when it wishes to be. As it brings shadow, depth, the illusion of barrier, the barrier of illusion -- Bobbi herself is warm, her soft tan and cream pelt tasting more golden in the light.

Ah, yes, we've come fully into your composition of color here. Dusty's coolness in hue, and Bobbi's warmer tan-gold pelt half-hidden in shadow, gives the picture a layer of message told entirely through its colors. Remove every line -- say, put it through a heavy blur filter, then use one of those cheap "brush effect" filters, stroke at about 350 degrees -- and the image tells a story purely with color and flow. From deep burgundy-red rise warm licks of flaming golds, rising into a receiving curl of earth and sky facing, greys, whites and pale yellows, the colors of wind, sun, sky and rock. Coolness receiving warmth. Fire dancing and casting its reflection on stone and sky. And then, we add the lines, the shapes, back onto the colors...and we see this very same "conversation," if you will, told again with wolf and rabbit doe as actors. Their hearts say the very same things their colors, and the defining lines, say.

THIS is why I love working with you, and with  Jailbird, so much! There are many talented renderers here -- people with the skill to translate objects into drawn pictures -- but being an *artist* is something subtly different than this. An artist not only depicts, an artist expresses, implies, suggests, and sometimes, withholds elements of these, forcing the viewer to complete the "puzzle" before him or her. You very clearly do this, and it's evident in your work, and I love the things I find when I reflect on a piece like this.

I honestly thought my art appreciation education from my crazy hippie mother was all just some exercise to fit in at gallery open houses, when I was younger. I'm so glad I learned how to appreciate art now, because not only can I say "Great picture, you got them just right," but I can appreciate *how* you chose to express them in the image, and can appreciate the image for what it is -- something so much cooler than a mere photograph of the characters.

Bobbi's creator/player commented tonight that she's amazed by your capture of Bobbi's body language and gaze, by the way. She was really impressed, and deeply touched.

I can't tell you how much I love it. Thank you ever so much, again!

ahhhhahahaha sdkfjlshdfks i cannot even think of an eloquent response to this comment. except: you spoil me. stop it before i get lazy and never improve. XD;;

ahh i joke. thanks so much for your appreciation and generosity. you're super. (:

Hey, thank *you* for this absolutely drop-jaw-stunning gift. :) Bobbi's creator and I still stare at it, two days later, and wow quietly.

Okay, my birthday was back in March, and I still come here semi-regularly to wow over this one. Thank you so much, again.