Foxbruary 2021: 14 <3

Happy single people awareness day!

Its like there's an alternating pattern going on here of how each of these two cuties thinks the best valentines day activities are. What isn't alternating however is just how much I enjoy drawing some cute couple pictures of these two for Valentines day. Its been a long running, 3 year now, tradition to draw Vivien and Ark spending time on Valentines day in some way or another just being an adorable couple.

It really is a bit of a time capsule at this point to look back and see just how much things have changed and improved over the years. Valentines 2019 seemingly Ark got to pick what they were doing to do for Valentines day and he decided playing some 'Just Shapes and Beats' with Vivien was the fun cute thing to do together. The picture still holds up okay, I tried experimenting with different light source colors to try and match the primarily pink color tone the game they were playing had. The background was also alright, though much of it was done in the same line weight as the characters, and still looks okay. The lighting was me trying to experiment more with darker settings and it didn't come out overly well if I'm being totally honest on the background, the couch wasn't cell shaded or smooth shaded but some bad combo of the inbetween.

Valentines 2020 Ark decided to take his Vixen out for a nice fancy dinner at one of her favorite places to eat. I tried doing more of a soft blended painted background and I think it came out relatively okay. My problem now was for some reason the character's anatomy was just totally out of whack compared to now standards. This was one of the last full color images before I adjusted to the new ink and color style, and way before my 2020 end of year anatomy tweaks. I was also trying to try more expressive faces with the characters, and it just looks a bit goofy to be honest.

But now, 2021 and this is just the best picture of these two I think I have done ever. The changes to head construction lines and scaling, the better anatomy scaling, the color saturation boost, blended shading, smooth paint background, better line weighting, its all just the culmination of all of the best changes I've made to my art in a while in one shot. They look the most like the cute comic style vision I've had for them ever since I started drawing them, and putting them together like this just makes it even better. Admittedly if I have to nitpick I think Vivien's hands might be a little out of scale, but it was a bit of a hard hand gesture to get down, and frankly the eyes are drawn right past it to their adorable expressions anyway. I also added some little extra background flair for fun, those being my Christmas themed Tervis I use for water, and some Sisters of Battle miniatures. Which funnily enough I had not yet picked a terrain material to put on their bases yet, but I do like the red cracked iron tinted regolith they're standing on right now in this shot.

Wow this is a long one, and thank you to those who actually read through it all. Art is one of my favorite passions, and just seeing how much my style, and abilities have improved over the years with these two is just the best feeling ever. Note this image will be excluded from the favorite counting for Foxbruary's top 3 getting done in full color... since this is already full color.

Make sure you let your significant other know how much you love them today. Go out of your way to do something to make them smile. And if you're single, remember one day that special someone will finally come along (I'm still looking for my real life Vivien as well, so don't lose hope).

Happy Valentine's day everyone, hope you all enjoy some cute foxy game n chill.

art ©  arcticfox2